Crystalic
Persistence

January 2011
Released: 2010, Self-released
Rating: 4.0/5
Reviewer: Luxi Lahtinen

"So, this is the way that music business works these days... We have patiently contacted record labels for over a year now and have not managed to get a single deal offered, that was nothing more than a total rip-off on the artist's expense. You really think that this material is not worth a decent release?! We want to progress and evolve as a band and concentrate on playing live and composing new songs. This is not possible if we have an album's worth of material recorded and ready for release. Just waiting and waiting endlessly for a possible collaborator. We have waited enough and this is the only choice.



The name of the album is an indication of the last 3 years that we have managed to pull through after a near break-up and the difficult process of recording, which took almost 2 years, 3 studios and a vocalist change in the middle of it all. This album is dedicated to all of our fans, who believe in this band and to all people who fight for their dreams and never give up! So without further ado..."



Frustrated? I bet they are to the very guts – and for a good and fair enough reason. I mean, we all appreciate a strong musicianship and stuff, don´t we? Crystalic, this 5-piece from Tampere, Finland, is full of pretty impressive musicianship. No bullshit. If you have ever liked later era Death – albums like SYMBOLIC or THE SOUND OF PERSEVERANCE, Crystalic is certainly your cup of tea. The band´s 2nd album, very aptly titled PERSISTENCE, has finally been released by the band – after 3 years of painful wait (read the insert above!), and I for one – as well as I bet many others, are glad it´s out now.



Talking about PERSISTENCE, it´s actually very easy to hear Chuck´s very in-depth and strong influence on this band. Crystalic (the band name sounds like a name play of a couple of Death songs, “Crystal Mountain” and “Symbolic” off the latter mentioned SYMBOLIC album, by the way) have adopted a sound for themselves that one could place them as a fair successor of the mighty Death´s last 3 albums. The band has clearly a very similar musical approach to the later era Death; the guitars have nearly the same tone and familiarly weeping sound that Chuck used to churn out from his 6-stringer over the years. There are also some moments on PERSISTENCE when one could believe they have fearlessly ripped off some Death songs – just like such songs as “Throne of Sin”, or a beautiful instrumental "Eulogy", prove it so loud and clear.



Otherwise Crystalic do their Death imitation so well and so shamelessly professionally on PERSISTENCE that I am sure that it should put a wide grin even on Mr. Schuldiner´s face in his heavenly kingdom if he got to hear this record. Therefore I would see PERSISTENCE – more or less, as a great tribute to one of the greatest Metal musicians that has ever walked on the face of the Earth, Chuck Schuldiner.



Great work from Crystalic after all – and let´s hope they could rightfully be snapped by some label so that they wouldn´t get even more frustrated in the coming months – and because of that split up eventually due to a lack of label interest.