Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The unexpected is a tale that can simmer with delight or be so damning that it’s hard to understand what was going through the heads of the participants involved. The best mix of this is when both collide head on like two rutting stags vying for the attention of a doe whose just been left a four bedroom apartment in the middle of New York and commanding views of Central Park, some stags aren’t going to give up on that prize easily.

For Eskimo Callboy that mix is heightened by the feel of the oncoming tornado that announces itself with a hefty blast of consideration, of Metal induced pop and the assault on the senses as if the stag with the biggest horns, bloodied, ripped and angry is now looking for the next person to enter the fray, its beady eyes fixed upon you as you head slowly backwards towards the exit.

Crystals is a precious gem that requires constant cleaning, to live between the thoughts of Sebastian Biesler, Kevin Ratajczak, Daniel Haniß, Pascal Schillo, Daniel Klossek and David Friedrich is to be both honoured and wonderfully terrified. It is the musical equivalent of sitting down to a game of truth and dare with Roald Dahl when he is in one of more flippant moods and with Edgar Allen Poe fronting the money to keep him in the game.

This third album by Eskimo Callboy is one in which the German tradition for musical surprise comes rushing headlong and with full vigour, it is the rippling muscle underneath the smooth silk shirt in which songs such as Pitch Blease, My Own Summer, Ritual, F.D.M.D.H., Paradise In Hell and Monster all jump out at the same time and howl with delight as the discomfort of the genre soon bleeds out and is replaced by sheer enjoyment, an enjoyment born out of musing just how they pulled it all together.

Crystals is an uplifting album, not one for the sentimental but certainly those with imagination and humour in their thoughts and the ability to handle the pressure of the oncoming tornado.

Crystals will be released on August 3rd in the U.K. via Spinefarm Records.

Ian D. Hall