Biography
Since the big rise of Finnish metal throughout the 1990s and in the early 21st Century, the metal scene in Finland now spawns more excellent new bands than ever. With this kind of overstimulated market, it is sadly easy for even best of the fresh bands to go unnoticed. However, for some of these bands the flaming inspiration to create and perform outstanding music is so strong that once one gets acquitented with these bands, it is immenently clear that the name of the band will be seen and heard in a much larger arenas than in the gig posters and flyers for local pubs or on the pages of small webzines. One of these bands is the Finnish Wacken Metal Battle 2007 winner, Crystal Blaze, a killer metal act from the city of Helsinki, Finland.
The band, started already in 1995 by schoolmates at that time, guitarist Mikael Grönroos, singer Max Obstbaum and drummer Gustaf Standertskjöld, has already achieved much more than many other unsigned bands – and surely is not intending to stop here! The current line-up for the band started to take shape in 2002, when guitarist Lauri Koskenniemi (Elenium) and keyboardist Lari Sorvo joined the band. In 2004, the band recorded a three-track demo called ´Dreams´ with this line-up. ´Dreams´ got very good and encouraging reviews in the Finnish press as well as in the Internet. Later in 2004, bassist Eerik Purdon (Omnium Gatherum, Iconofear) joined to band to make the present line-up almost complete.
In 2006, the band released another three-track demo, ´The Punishment´, which got excellent reviews among critics in Finnish and online press as well as ordinary fans in the Internet with comments praising this demo as a fresh take on making powerful melodic metal. The demo also led to many gigs and thus the Winter of 2006-2007 was a heavy gigging period for the band. In Spring 2007 the band parted ways with their long time drummer Gustaf Standertskjöld. Luckily, the band managed to get their long time friend, Finnish drummer virtuoso Juhana Karlsson (Amoral) to stand in for a couple of gigs with them and with this line-up the band won the Finnish Wacken Metal Battle 2007 final at the Qstock festical in Oulu, Finland, as well as performed at the Wacken Open Air Festival 2007. As the right chemistry was there with Juhana right from the start, the band asked him to record their new four-track demo ´Beneath the Sands´ (2008) with them and after the recordings asked him to join as a permanent member to which he agreed thus putting the seal on the present line-up of the band.
It is a indigenous feature of the human nature to observe the world by categorising, but in the case of Crystal Blaze this is not very easy. Though one can hear features of such different sub-genres of metal like power metal, trash metal or progressive metal in the music of Crystal Blaze, it is still quite a difficult task to simply place the band in just one category. The previous releases of the band being closest to fit into the category of power metal, with ´Beneath the Sands´ the band takes a clear step away from the norms and clichés of power metal and lets no genre limits or stereotypes to limit their composing process and expression. For an easy definition one could say that the name Crystal Blaze can be considered to be synonymous for melodic, groovy and technical metal but without being too strictly defined by any of these characterisations. Roaring vocals, stirring guitar leads and amazing solos, ethereal and uplifting keyboards, thunderous bass and virtuosic drums are all the essence of Crystal Blaze, but the band is more than just a sum of its parts.
So does the future hold for Crystal Blaze? Numerous concerts without a doubt but the band is also seriously working on new material for a possible full-length album. For a mind-blowing experience, go and check Crystal Blaze live while waiting for the next release!
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