vote
6.5
- Band:
Crystal Skull - Duration: 00:58:44
- Available from: 25/06/2025
- Label:
-
Underground Symphony
Spotify not yet available
Apple Music not yet available
The Crystal Skull project was born in 2007 in the mind of the singer, bassist and guitarist Claudio The Reaper. We are in the Gorizia area and, although the Friulian scene is historically active enough, it does not seem so easy to find the right musicians to complete the band. Claudio continues to compose on his own and in 2020 he finally managed to produce a disc collecting the best ideas written during the previous thirteen years.
To give support to what was practically a One-Man Band at the time, we find a security of the national scene, namely the Underground Symphony, the historic label of the great enthusiast and expert Maurizio Chiarello. After the publication of the debut, the ice seems to be broken and with the entry of Fabio Tomba (Silverbones) as a drummer and shortly after of the singer Lorenzo Nocerino (always Silverbones), the Crystal Skull finally take the appearance of a real group and can focus on the recordings of this “Arcane Tales”.
Beyond the texts, which follow a concept that tells the adventures of the magical world of Arendal, it is precisely the music that seems to catapult us to over two decades ago, when a certain type of Power Metal went larger. The Teutonic imprint is very present, fishing from Running Wild, Scanner, Rage, Grave Digger and our Drakkar but with a more epic and valiant imprint that cannot fail to remember Rhapsody and first Secret Sphere on some occasions.
The leader Claudio, now also bassist of the Sacred Order of the Knights of Parsifal and Akroterion, shows a strong passion for these sounds and a good ability to create engaging songs: if in fact, at the first impact, one could stop a little perplexed in being in front of a power-heavy in some ways almost overcome and to which we are no longer used to it (and more Anchored in those days), with the going of the listening it is as if everything began to take a defined form, making the listening interesting.
“Arcane Tales” has the strengths and weaknesses, but above all it presents something that honestly it is difficult to find nowadays since most of the realities focus on more modern sounds, and those few historical bands remained faithful to the past, have often lost their compass for some time (serious digger first!).
Songs like the mighty “Gates of Skull” – even if the melodies of the guitars resemble the refrain of “Angus McFife” of the Gloryhammer – “Prisoner in the night”, which flows with a decision to a refrain that seems to have come out of the wonderful “Mistress of the Shadowlight” of the Secret Sphere, or the most raw, or “Stormbreaker”, with a more direct choir, manage to bring classic sounds to more than discreet levels.
Clearly many passages have already been heard in the past and the band is still missing that pinch of maturity to make ends meet in the best way: this weighs in some moments as in the all too linear “Ancient's ritual” or when you meet the folkendant “Queen of the Black Moon (Erevyn's Fate)”, which between Echi of Elvenking and Rhapsody is a little out of context. In addition, within the fourteen tracks that make up the tracklist, there are some short interludes that honestly little add, not only musically listening, but not even in recreating some atmospheres that would help to go into the narrated concept.
On the other hand, the work of the guitars is certainly positive, not so much in technical terms but for the ability to create good guitar plots and to hit with determination, and Lorenzo's uvola has affected us positively; Often rough and sharp – but capable of getting up on acute no small, as evidenced by during “Glory or Damn (Turok's Damnation)” – and honestly we prefer it in this dirtier guise with which it can give a more gritty impact to compositions.
In this sense, “The Underdark” must be mentioned, a darker song and perhaps also debtor towards a more British sound (Maiden, Priest but also Demon); The steaming attack of “Am-Aras (Black Lord)” instead brings us back to the more direct Iron Saviour, flying on a riff that refuses to stop even for a moment, dragging with it a quick drumming and vocal lines they conquer thanks to an exciting refrain. In the final, the band does not even be missing a suite of over ten minutes, which will be remembered above all for a nice chorus of Power.
Many, too many groups mentioned in the lines above, a sign that the band must work to create a more personal path: but “Arcana Tales”, with its strengths and weaknesses, is a job that surprises us showing how in the abyss of the Italian undergloration there are still musicians and realities worthy of attention today!
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
