ILLUSORY – Crimson Wreath

In the beginning of the last decade of the 20th century, a Metal band was put up in Greece. It was called Ivory Tower and its tenure spanned over decades, centuries and millennia, that is until 2012 when the guys decided it’s time for a little revamp and went for some changes. One of those changes was the band name, and as of 2012, what once was Ivory Tower is known as Illusory. The guys have released three albums since, the most recent one being titled Crimson Wreath.

The record starts off rather bland. Yes, there is heaviness here: there is some powerful riffage, interesting themes and complex lead parts. The production is rather spot-on too. And yet the band seems to be missing something, as if there was some sand that went in between the cogwheels of amazingness making it sound not quite as epic as one might expect. Third time luck, they say – the composition number 3, being the title one is something much more exciting. As long as the idea of Master of Puppets era Metallica going 21st century Power Metal sounds good, then it is a really great song. Especially the keyboard theme about four minutes through is praiseworthy, though for some enigmatic reason the mix is really low – it certainly deserves some more volume. Luckily, the farther through the album one listens, the more cool songs can be heard, like for instance “All Blood Red” which happens to be the track number 6. That one’s got some nice kick to it and the guitar solos are just poetry. Fans of the classic lineup of Iron Maiden should approve of that song. Also, “Ashes To Dust” being the 9th song is really decent. The singer does a great job in this one, the only “but” is the fact the very last note seems to be the main hook. Either way, that tune kicks.

Overall, there is only Crimson Wreath is really missing, but sadly it is a very important one: it’s that kind of groove that makes one move. There seems to be no flow that could make the listener close their eyes and think “Yes, this is the stuff!” That concerns mostly the heavy parts of the songs. The clean ones, however, whenever the band decides to go all ballad-like… that’s a whole other story. The level of mysteriousness they can achieve is soaring to say the least. The intro of the composition titled “Agony’s Last” being the penultimate one on Crimson Wreath is a very good example. That is a really powerful song, also because shortly afterwards “Fortress of Sadness”, the one to close the album. That 10 minute long masterpiece is definitely most Metal fans will enjoy. Drifting into trance to that song should not be hard at all. The female choir may have a hint of Nightwish to it, but definitely nowhere near enough to speak of a rip-off.

To put things together, Crimson Wreath is not an album as awesome as one might expect it to be, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not worth checking out. Yes, fans of high energy music might think it sounds as if the band members were on some tranquilizers, but those who like to enjoy some herbaceous relaxation while listening to music might fall in love with the record. Last but not least, perhaps the guys at Illusory should consider working on their clean stuff even more and they might end up inventing a new subgenre called “Calm Metal” (as long as such one still does not exist). It’s up to them which way they’re going to choose, but one thing is for sure: non-heavy parts are something Illusory are really good at.