Crystavox
Crystavox
1990 Regency Records
Produced By: Adam Lee Kemp & Loren Holmquist
album cover
back
back (insert)
insert
disc
Track Listings
Wear It Out
All The Way
All Around The World
Band Members
Adam Lee Kemp: Vocals
Loren Holmquist: Rhythm Guitars, Keys
Tony Lopez: Lead Guitars
Fred Helm: Drums
Crystavox is one of those bands that I "discovered" through one of Regency Records many compilations in the 80's or early 90's. I believe their track Sacrifice showed up one on of those albums. I was instantly hooked by the band and had to track down their first full length album. Like many of Regency Records albums, finding the disc for a long time would prove to be difficult. For years I settled for the cassette version, only recently adding the disc to my collection.
One of the first things I noticed about the disc was printed on the back side of the insert...the album purpose statement.
Despite many Christians' heroic efforts in obedience, the unregenerate flesh remains in contention. All have sinned including us, but there are certain absolutes that remain. "Through grace we can have victory" is the least we can do. Accepting our weakness and allowing others to have theirs is a critical beginning. To step out in spite of our weaknesses is putting faith into action. May the content of this album encourage the weary and challenge the passive towards the mark of the high calling of Christ. Focus on the needs not on the rules. Focus on the Teacher and not on the tools. In full understanding, rock on!
I don't know about you, but I find stuff like this from the band to be very insightful and very cool. To me it means a lot and shares a little insight to what the band is trying to do with their music.
As far as the tracks go, Sacrifice and Power Games is a great 1, 2 punch to start the album off with. The guitar tracks, loud anthem like vocals are fantastic. Both are favorites of mine.
Wear It Out is one song that I usually jump to press the skip button. I like the lyrical content and message of the song, I just don't care for the chorus as it sounds silly to me.
Turn It On has a very catchy rhythm and chorus and I always find myself singing along. Not my favorite track on the album, but still a fun song.
Home Again is one of the few ballads on the album. In my opinion these guys sound a lot like Cinderella here. One song not to miss.
All the Way is your average rock song. Nothing really stands out or drags this song down. The next track is It's All Right (to rock n' roll). At first I hated this song. I would be quick to fast forward my cassette every time. Once I got the CD however I just had the whole album on repeat. It wasn't long before this song became one of my favorites. Very catchy and fun to sing along with.
Never Give In and Tough Boys round out their freshman effort. The latter song is really good, just falls behind the opening tracks as one of my favorites. Tough Boys...hmm, where do I start. I don't know if this was one of those songs the band wrote very early on in their careers, but its not the best way to close out an album in my opinion. I read somewhere that a indie video the band shot for this song is what helped them land their first record deal. Not one of my favorites, but I don't find myself skipping over it anymore.
Overall this is a GREAT album. I can't believe it took me so long to finally pick it up on disc, but I'm glad I did. It seemed for years this was hard to track down, and when you did find a copy it seemed to be fairly expensive. However now a quick search on eBay will turn up many copies and most of them could be had for $15 or less. Solid freshman effort by the guys and worth owning if you don't already.
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