Dangerdog Music Reviews :: © 1999 - 2025 Craig S Hartranft :: All Rights Reserved
No part of this this website, including design and music reviews,
may be reproduced in any form or by any means without
the prior written permission of the publisher.
CELEBRATING 18 YEARS!
- New Music Reviews
- |
- Archives
- |
- News
- |
- Submissions
- |
- About
- |
- |
New Music Reviews, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Progressive Rock, Progressive Metal, AOR, Alternative Rock, Alternative Metal
Recent Reviews
February 2025
- Craig Brooks: Desolation Freeway
- Mantric Momentum: Alienized
- Pattern-Seeking Animals: Friend Of All Creatures
- Crazy Lixx: Thrill Of The Bite
- Ginger Evil: The Way It Burns
- Dream Theater: Parasomnia
- Tyran: Tyran's Oath
- Saber: Lost In Flames
January 2025
- Wildness: Avenger
- The Ferrymen: Iron Will
- Labyrinth: In The Vanishing Echoes Of Goodbye
- Bonfire: Higher Ground
- The Big Deal: Electrified
- Landfall: Wide Open Sky
December 2024
- After Lapse: Pathways
- Illusion Force: Halfana
- Powell-Payne: Voilá
November 2024
- Sunstorm: Restless Fight
- Storace: Crossfire
- Voodoo Circle: Hail To The King
- Lionville: Supernatural
- Starchaser: Into The Great Unkown
- Empires Of Eden: Guardians Of Time
- Lonerider: Down In The Dust
- Seventh Crystal: Entity
- Neal Morse & The Resonance: No Hill For A Climber
- Beardfish: Songs For Beating Hearts
- Impellitteri: War Machine
- Brothers Of Metal: Fimbulvinter
October 2024
- Casandra's Crossing: Garden Of Earthly Delights
- DGM: Endless
- Daytona: Garder la Flamme
- Fate: Reconnect 'N Ignite
- Frost*: Life In The Wires
- Aries Descendant: From The Ashes Of Deceit
- Fans Of The Dark: Video
- Radioactive: Reset
- House Of Lords: Full Tilt Overdrive
- Cleanbreak: We Are The Fire
Crystal Tears: Hellmade
Crystal Tears: Hellmade
Heavy/Power Metal
3.5/5.0
Website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Massacre Records
by Craig Hartranft, 19.03.2014
It seems every four years is the charm for Crystal Tears. They return with their third album, Hellmade. Three may also be a charm for them. This is not only their third album, but the third different record label and third new vocalist; this time it's Søren Adamsen (ex-Artillery).
Crystal Tears: it says so right there.
What remains is their heavier version of power metal driven by strong riffs and founder Chrisafis Tantanozis's immense double bass drumming. While you'll catch some groove and melody, mostly Crystal Tears is blasting and blistering away as the drive their metal through you eardrums.
Actually, the best songs are those where the melody survives the massive wall of riffage and lifts the song as within Out of the Shadows or Beds Are Burning, lesser within The Devil Inside. Sometimes the vocal arrangement brings both melody and hook as in Ever Alone and Psycho Pollution. Mostly, however, Adamsen has a raw, sometimes screamo, sound. Essentially, in the end, Hellmade is a hard charging drum and riff monster with the subtleties of groove and melody keeping the potential for modern heavy metal harshness in check.
Crystal Tears - Out of the Shadows
Crystal Tears - Hellmade
Tweet
Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.
In Short
Essentially, Hellmade is a hard charging drum and riff monster with the subtleties of groove and melody keeping the potential for modern heavy metal harshness in check.
Find A Review
Alphabetical Index
New & Notable
By now it's old news. Everybody in the prog universe knows: Dream Theater got the band back together. Drummer and founding member Mike Portnoy returned to his Dream Theater family to celebrate their 40th ... [ Read More ]