Wednesday 12 February 2014

Crystal Palace - The System of Events (2013)



The sixth album from this German neo prog band. A band sharing it's name with a not so beloved English football team and a World Exhibition building in London who burned down some decades ago (no, I am not bothering looking it up on google).

The German band called Crystal Palace is a neo prog band. They are among the very fine bunch of German neo prog bands. A great scene. Their albums has got mixed reviews to say at least. I quite liked their 2010 album Reset. That was their fifth album, btw.

Crystal Palace has expanded their sound a bit on this album towards the likes of RPWL and the more commercial stadium rock bands. There is a lot of different influences on  this album and it feels like the band themselves are reaching out towards a bigger stage.

The System Of Events is a seventy minutes long album, divided into eight songs. The songs are pretty long and includes a lot of soaring guitars, keyboards, bass, drums and vocals. The sound is pretty massive at times. It is also pastoral when that is called for. The songs are pretty varied and this album offers good value for money.

Unfortunate, the result does not match the ambitions. There is no killer tracks here and the album feels like a more generic stadium rock album. It is a big, big album which does not really hit me at home, wherever my home is.

This is a good album though and those into big and ambitious neo prog of the more stadium seeking type should check out this album.

3 points

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