I should really consider myself quite lucky to still be on speaking terms with the promotional department of Candlelight Records here in the United Kingdom. Why? Well, the moment I found out that a new Crionics album was released in the market I start bombarding these poor people with numerous e-mails, asking them to provide me with a promo copy. If you believe that I'm mad, well...join the cue, but you would be far more understanding of my 'condition' had you listened to the band's previous effort "Armageddon's Evolution". Anyway, in this case passion seems to have triumphed over logic so soon a promo copy of the band's latest effort "Neuthrone" arrived at my doorstep.

Crionics is a band which has consciously chosen to 'operate' in the vast grey area which separates two equally extreme but slightly different music genres - Death and Black Metal and in their previous two efforts proved that they were quite capable of creating their own trademark style drawing influences from both these genres. Well, even though "Neuthrone" is a product of the exact same mentality it clearly signals a new era for the band - one that finds them abandoning the symphonic elements of their past efforts and instead investing in a more futuristic/industrial keyboard sound while holding on to the massive guitar riffs that drew my attention to them in the first place.

Now, I hope you don’t get the wrong impression here: Crionics have definitely not become a Gothic or Eletronica band. The eleven new compositions that are featured here are still based on monstrous staccato guitar riffs and brutal growls, with keyboards playing as always a supportive role yet adding plenty of atmosphere in the process.

This great combination of melody and aggression is responsible for bringing to life compositions such as "Arrival 2033" and "Hell Earth" - both of which are blessed with simple but massive sounding riffs and skilful drum themes. The dominant composition in the first half of the album is "Superiors" whose impressive industrial sounding keyboards and dominant vocals make this band sound like a more modern version of Vader.

The second half of the album is far more impressive, containing compositions of real epic proportions such as "Humanmeat Cargo" and "Frozen Hope" - the formers strength being attributed to smart keyboard melodies whereas the latter to its brilliantly performed mid tempo riff and supporting melodic guitars. Finally, those of you are more interested in keyboard-driven compositions should check out "Outer Empire" simply to realise how immature and childish some of Dimmu Borgir's tunes sound in comparison to this intellectual composition.

If I was to simply compare "Neuthrone" with it's predecessor based on their overall strength and coherence, the end result would be marginally more in favour of "Armageddon's Evolution" - on the other hand, though, this eleven track release had already created many new opportunities for the young Poles. To make things simpler: if songs like "Frozen Hope" are to be taken as a clear indication of the band's future musical direction, then "Neuthrone" is the necessary step towards a potential masterpiece - one that I am personally really looking forward to. Very well done guys!

****

Review by John Stefanis