 |
 |
 |
Artist: CHRISALLYS
Album: Sacred Fire
Year: 2009
Some of you might recognise or remember the name Chrisallys from the mighty 'F**k Em All Volume 4' release. For the ones who don't - Chrisallys is a fairly unknown electro metal band from the land of Che Guevara and Diego Maradonna. The band got formed in 2003 and got picked up by Twilight Records almost immidiately to release their debut album 'ReBorn' one year later. Then the band started playing live shows all over Argentina and slowly started composing new songs. This results in the 2009 release 'Sacred Fire'.
The release opens with 'Breed of Cain'. It's an accessable wave track, including wicked electro passages, diverse riffing and accessable vocal lines. Overall the track comes with an undeniable old school touch. 'How We Loved And Lost' - the track that was featured on the compilation before - comes up next. This version is slightly different, coming with more prominent keylines and slightly different riffing and drumming. The song overall is very accessable - and in my opinion the best of the release - coming with a sticky chorus and a powerful approach. 'Shotgun' is a decent electro metal track, built on a spine of dark keylines and bashing drumming, decorated with strong riffing and excellent vocal lines. 'Fallen Kingdom' is a downtempo old school wave track, coming with diverse guitar work, powerful drumming and well implenting vocal lines. The sensitivity of the track is highly acclaimed. 'Jasmine' continues walking the path that was taken with 'Fallen Kingdom' - bringing a sensitive mix of old school and diverse riffing and powerful drumming. 'Process Completed' is an experimental electro metal track, implenting influences from synthpop and wave and mixing it into an accessable atmospheric downtempo track. 'Nephtys' is a decent midtempo track, providing a mix of old school wave and gothic rock with blended modern electro metal influences. It consists of excellent diverse riffing, powerful midtempo drumming and wellplaced key- and vocal lines. 'Fog Shade' is build on a spine of piano works and sensitive vocal lines, slowly moving to an outburst when the riffing and drumming kick in. Overall it's a diverse wave track, very decently build too, which makes it my personal favorite. 'Firekiss' is another sensitive wave track, implenting a lot of old school influences. It comes with wellplaced straight to the point riffing, accessable vocal lines and essential keylines blending it all together nicely. What comes next is an Iggy Pop cover - 'Cry for Love'. It's an excellent cover - very atmospheric - which touches both the electro metal and wave edges. The fact that it sounds like an actual Chrisallys song is probably the biggest compliment a coversong played by them could get. 'Taking Over' is another one of my personal favorites. It's a diverse midtempo electro metal song, coming with a catchy chorus and very powerful riffing and drumming. The mix of the dark passages and cold keylines is essential. 'The Path' is another decent piece of wave, with an excellent mix of clean guitars, keylines and sensitive vocals. The powerful parts bring the track a nice amount of variation. The next four tracks are labeled as bonus tracks, starting with 'Morning Star (Acoustic Version)'. It's a nice orchestral piece, giving the sensitive vocal lines another boost. The Depeche Mode coversong 'Sister of Night' is another excellent example of how to play a cover, coming with diverse powerful riffing and sensitive vocal lines but most of all - it sounds like a regular Chrisallys song again. The so-called 'Morning Star (Metal Mix)' is in fact more of a wave track including gentle drumming and (female!) vocal lines, mixing excellently with the diverse riffing and wellplaced samples. The release ends with a dark electro metal remix of the song 'Taking Over' done by Chilean electro metal band Replica, which provides a nice ending of this release.
'Sacred Fire' turns out to be a very pleasant surprise in the end. It shows many different faces of this band, not crossing too many borders besides the one of decency in song structure, and comes overall with a fresh and diverse sound despite the many old school touches. As well the excellent production is a total blessing for this album. It might even be a bit ironic to say that fans of bands like The Sisters of Mercy, Tiamat, Type O Negative and Volkmar will definitely agree with me that Chrisallys brings them some more black light or maybe even glow in the dark stuff in their darkest days... still, I couldn't think of a better conclusion!
Vote: 97 / 100
Review by: Gerardo
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
1. Breed of Cain
2. How we Loved and Lost
3. Shotgun
4. Fallen Kingdom
5. Jasmine
6. Process Completed
7. Nephtys
8. Fog Shade
9. Firekiss
10. Cry for Love (Iggy Pop Cover)
11. Taking Over
12. The Path
13. Morning Star (Acoustic Version)
14. Sister of Night (Depeche Mode Cover)
15. Morning Star (Metal Mix)
16. Taking Over (Replica Remix)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
