wicked sensation crystallized

Released: 28 June 2010 Label: Metal Heaven

I’m always amazed at the sheer number of new rock CDs from mainland Europe that still fly the lag for retro 80s Metal, and Wicked Sensation’s Crystallized is yet another of the seemingly endless cavalcade that remind me how horribly pop-oriented the UK music scene really is.

Its not that Crystallized by Germany’s Wicked Sensation is a particularly brilliant album - it isn’t - rather that Europe is still a bastion of Rock and Metal that is keeping afloat a musical genre that for a while now, has faded from the public consciousness here on this wretched island!

Better World gets the album off to a bombastic start, the emphasis is clearly on melody over brutality, although the riff occasionally chugs and there are a few pinched harmonics in there too, while Andy Deris of Helloween fame, lends vocal support on the duet My Turn to Fly.

Give it Up boasts a sleazy walking riff, full of guitar harmonics and 80s strutting. A brass section adds a retro vibe and somehow recalls the pomp and style of Def Leppard.

Lost in a World is a typical rock ballad as unoriginal as they come, but it does grudgingly generate excitement during the chorus, even if the verses seem to be padding to delay the pay off of the money-shot guitar solo outro.

Ballsier riffs do occur on the likes of Love to World, which also benefits from a more understated vocal melody, the mid paced rockers Am I Right and Ordinary Man, which has a riff that could almost be classed as heavy!

It's not all mid paced mediocritym, there are some horrible tunes too, such as Gimme the Night, which has too many “Oh Yeah’s” along with its cliched pumping bass line, and the torturous chorus that’s as silly as you like. The one thing that lets down most of these Euro Rock releases is the daft lyrical content, and this is evident throughout the album, especially on Fistful of Dreams where the euphemism “With a fistful of dreams, I whisper in your ear,” can only provoke bafflement amongst English speakers. Answers on a postcard, please, as to what he is trying to convey!

Bleeding Hearts though is an epic anthemic album closer, and being honest I’d have been surprised if it wasn’t, such is the predictability of the band.

Wicked Sensation is an upbeat German hard rock outfit, and main man guitarist Klein certainly knows his chops and uses some stellar whammy bar techniques. Overall though it’s strictly by the numbers compositionally, despite the evident flair of the musicianship and catchiness, it’s not exactly essential or groundbreaking.

by Steven Hargraves