After their two first releases, "No Cure" (1995) and "Hard Times" (1993) the CRIME band took nearly twenty years to release their third full-length album entitled "Master of Illusion" containing almost an hour of duration. In their freshest work the quintet brings again a powerful and well melodic Hard Hock, being all lyrics written by the re-arrived vocalist Francis Soto and he is also responsible for all the vocal harmonies. Recorded on Matthias Fischer's renowned PROTON Studio, which has already worked with international greats such as Michael Schenker and Samsas Traum, the mixing and production are good, and the cover looks great for me.

The first track carriers the album name "Master of Illusion" and starts showing lots of personality, strong riffs, demonstrating to fans what they will experiment through all the way here, the vocals work well having a great harmony with among the instruments, the opener also counts with well-placed backing vocals, and a remarkable chorus. On "Tears Are Falling Down" they slow the rhythm to have a more frownsong concentrated in a more depressing and gloomier environment represented by the guitar riffs that weep along with the lyrics, perhaps considering the groove along with the vocals, the second track reminded me of the musical project led by Tobias Sammet called AVANTASIA. "Shoot Shoot" goes thru the heart of Hard Rock soul with its simplicity and the same works for "Moving On".

Moving forward we pass to "From My Mind" which starts with electronic elements to mark the entrance of leads guitars and growing on to a very swinging groove, although it does not have a specific highlight, I found this song very pleasant to hear throughout the set.  Bringing some more diversity for the album we have the mandatory first ballad "No life" carrying tones of felling this one seems to fit better than "Kingdom Of Desire" and "Showed Me Love" for a break and reflection time. The last song of the album is "The Chains" and also starts with electronic elements and brings a strong base of the bass, ending a great work consistently, showing that even after a long period of pause, the band can still go a good way forward.