Sometimes I like a little power in my heavy. Swiss band CRYSTAL BALL is a powerhouse that performs metal with a force to be reckoned with. Following a 6 year hiatus, a new album "Dawnbreaker" was finally released this year, and they bring with them a new energy. What makes this band especially interesting is their blend of classic Heavy Metal, euro-Rock and melodic Power Metal; some of the tracks sound like something off a EUROPE album; other times I am recalled back to IRON MAIDEN; and other times I hear RHAPSODY OF FIRE. Naturally, the musicianship is excellent, but keeping things from growing bland are the vocals; gruff and aggressive, not normally found on a melodic Power Metal album, and almost add a Lemmy-like atmosphere.

The opener "Break of Dawn" is a through-and-through Heavy Metal track, with heavy and aggressive guitar-driven passages; even the vocals are percussive, putting particular emphasis on adding an extra axe blade to those of the chugging guitars. Immediately following is a strongly Euro-flavored track, "Anyone can be a Hero", with wailing guitar and vocal melodies and very, very 80's melodic progressions. A nice touch, I think; albums like this simply do not feel complete without the odd blast from the past. A song that stuck out like a sore thumb, for me, is "Skin to Skin"; at first, I thought it was an EDGUY piece, because it sounds like it could have come directly out of "Mandrake" or "Rocket Ride". A copy? Nay; a nice remembrance piece; mid-tempo but catchy, groovy, heavy and melodic.

I hope this band is "Back for Good", or at least for a while. Another EDGUY-like track, complete with atmospheric synths, this is another rocking mid-tempo track that even, in terms of arrangement, reminds me a lot of STRATOVARIUS' "Kiss of Judas". Allow me to go on and on about the guitar solo; it is a damned fine work of art, and the twin harmonized solo is at a Scandinavian level. Next up, the band returns in a blaze of glory to the roots of melodic Heavy Metal in "Power Pack", which combines the aggressive grooves of METALLICA's peak era, and some additional Euro-style melodies. Lyrics are cliché as hell, but I do not care; essentially my favorite song on the album. The end track, "Bond of Love" proves that a Metal album does not need an over-abundance of guitar-shredding, blast beats and double kicks (of which this album has none) to be brimming with molten steel. Hell, I'm even noticing a few slight progressive touches here.

I admire CRYSTAL BALL for not trying too hard to be Metal, for not being too cliché, and for effectively bring back to full force the essence of Heavy Metal into modern times.