The Swiss hard rock stage shows off inspired bands through the years, like KROKUS and more recently with GOTTHARD. But here we have a group that is rocking around for almost 10 years with 5 albums in their resume. CRYSTAL BALL in 1995 was called CHERIE PIE and they were a cover band; this stage experience gave them the courage to begin a very successful rock career.
We have in our hands the 6th album from the Swiss rockers, Secrets, with a mysterious and sexy cover (what else do you need?). A naked girl holds a crystal ball that is glowing. Moondance is the album's opener with the atmosphere of pure hard rock, lyrics and melodies that stick to your head. Easy listening music that makes you feel from love to excitement. Mark Sweeney's vocals can bring a lot of GOTTHARD's  Steve Lee to your mind but CRYSTAL BALL's sound leans more to the AOR side of hard rock.
I Will Drag You Down is another great song with power and intensity and the usual chords and mid-tempo groove that hard rockers use It's Not Love is a conclusion that many of us many times reached, a song that has some great guitar work form Scott Leach. Time Has Come has the same guitar playing style as the song Hit Between The Eyes from SCORPIONS. The album's self-titled song (Secrets) is a little faster than the other songs, a nice heavy metal song.
The production for Secrets is made by Michael Bormann, the infamous German singer well known from his works with HIGH VOLTAGE, JADED HEART, LETTER X, BONFIRE, BLOODBOUND, RAIN and many other projects. Back to Secrets, I must say that CRYSTAL BALL did a great job from the songwriting point of view and just let Bormann put together the whole thing. The album closes with songs for love, memories, loss and generally pain, that is why we love it. Dreaming Of You, Destiny, I'll Be Waiting and Face The Truth are the songs that can make you feel.
CRYSTAL BALL are giving the hard rock fans a reason to party, to cry and think. You should take that chance.