Crystal Viper – Possession

Polish metallers Crystal Viper are back with their new album – Possession.  Like the previous album (Crimen Excepta), Possession is a concept album but whereas “Crimen Excepta” was about holy inquisition, black magic and witches, the new album is about a young girl called Julia who is possessed.

In terms of vocals, Marta has a traditional heavy metal vocal style, similar to bands including Crucified Barbara, Battle Beast, Hellion and others.  Musically they are traditional heavy metal

The album opens with “Zeta reticuli”, an intro track just under a minute long.  With its operatic vocals and keyboards you could be forgiven for thinking this was going to be a symphonic metal album, but as soon as the first real song, “Voices in my head” kicks off you find out what the album is really like – it opens with the guitars and drums making it a heavy track from the start, and then Marta’s vocals kick in and the song goes from strength to strength.

From there the album is a great album full of traditional heavy metal songs.  There are a couple of special guests on the album – “Fight Evil With Evil” features guest vocals from American singer Harry Conklin (Jag Panzer, Titan Force, Satan’s Host), and “Julia Is Possessed” features growling vocals fromSataniac, vocalist of the German Black/Thrash Metal act Desaster.

As always, Crystal Viper have recorded a cover version for the album, a track that only appears on the CD version as a bonsu track.  This time they’ve chosen to cover “Thundersteel” by RIOT.

A great album for fans of traditional heavy metal bands and particularly bands like Battle Beast, Hellion and more.

Rating: 4/5

Track listing:

1. Zeta Reticuli
2. Voices In My Head
3. Julia Is Possessed
4. Fight Evil With Evil
5. Mark Of The Horned One
6. Why Can’t You Listen?
7. You Will Die You Will Burn
8. We Are Many
9. Prophet Of The End
CD bonus track:
10. Thundersteel (RIOT cover song)

The Vinyl version includes a hidden bonus track

Crystal Viper are:

Marta Gabriel (vocals, guitars)
Andy Wave (guitars)
Golem (drums)
Michal Badocha (bass)
http://youtu.be/sqGoBBMOKik