Additional info Music written and arranged by Edge Of Sanity November 1995
Lyrics written by Axelsson/Swanö in January 1996.
Crimson was recorded and mixed in Unisound by Dan Swanö and ProMix 01 December
to January 1996.
Mastered and digitally edited by Peter in de Betou & Dan Swanö in Cutting Room,
Stockholm January 1996.
Cover artwork by Duncan C. Storr.
Cover concept by Dan Swanö.
Design & Layout by Maren Lotz.
Executive Producer: Börje Forsberg.
Promotion: Björn Schrenk
I was really surprised to see that this outstanding album didn't have any reviews here. In an effort to make that right, lets start. What we have here is an album that consists of only one, 40 minute long song. For those who are not familiar with Crimson yet, don't be afraid. Songs over 10 minutes long are not so uncommon in metal, but even the most progressive of bands often fall into the trap of making them too dull and not really enjoyable after first few minutes - the story about Crimson Queen is definitely not.
Epic. Everything here is great especially when they play a riff and then they change it and after about 5 minutes they crash again with it. You could hear the intro riff repeated 4 times. The melodic guitar sounds beautiful. The vocals are great. No wonder Dan Swano and Mikael Akerfeldt are involved! For all metal fans.
I remember having listen to that masterpiece 10 times by day since a week. It as been a revelation for me.
At the moment I have been listening tp this album for about 5 times, and I will keep on listeningto it until the 10th time. The reason for me to keep on listening until no. 10th time is because I will make my final decision if I want to throw this album into my dustbin on the 10th listening.
So far, this album is a bullshit to me (I don't simply criticize, I respect musician, and I hope they produce more good album, so that I can buy more of it).
When I talk about Swano, I always think of Death's Chuck, Chuck always know dos and donts, that's why i like him and his music.
Swano is different, quiet a greedy guy...(musically)
1) Swano can not play drum at all, his drum performance sucks, bring this album down.
2) Swano can not play bass at all....repeat (1)
3) Swano can not sing at all ....repeat (1)
The art direction of this album is not sharp and clear. I find Swano is holding a machine gun and shooting everywhere,end up a lot of dead black crows under the trees. Messy and Confused !
I think the whole album only the guitarist is performing !
IMPO (In my professional opinion),This Album Is Definitely Overrated.
So the majority of your criticisms of this album is based on the fact you think Swano is "greedy" by playing all the instruments? Well then, you should probably know that the MS's description is incorrect, Crimson I featured a full line-up. Swano does not play the drums or the bass on this album, this wouldn't happen until Crimson II, and it is also true that an amount of the clean singing on this album was done by Mikael Åkerfeldt. I don't know why MS has the info wrong but according to MS Swano did pretty much on everything on the Cryptic album when in fact he did nothing whatsoever, he had nothing to do with that album. So yeah, before throwing around terms like "in my professional opinion" you should double check your facts there ;]
Furthermore, just as a counter argument, Swano has proved himself more than competent in playing a vast numbers of musical instruments and he's a great singer if you ask me, and is the reason why he has dozens upon dozens of musical projects and collaborations and why he's frequently called upon to play instruments for a number of bands. (of course none of that relates to this album because most of the instruments are played by other people. And played well in my opinion). And pertaining to your assertions about it being "messy and confused" - this could be true if the album contained mismatched sections and parts but it is written to include leitmotifs, which allows a level of familiarity even if listening to it just the once; the music serves to build up recognition by having sections repeat themselves as part of a theme, so it most certainly has a clear structure and level of foresight. I thought listening to it as many times as you supposedly have you would have thought to mention that.
And I thought Seventh Wonder's The Great Escape would be the longest song I would ever hear (still very long, being 30 minutes long), this "song" doesn't even feel like 40 minutes, it feels much shorter, and I want more! Amazing stuff.
This album is one of the most brilliant albums ever made. I still can't understand why this album is in 18th position in the Top 200, it deserves a much higher position. Besides, I think it's just ridiculous the fact that Number Of The Beast is in a higher position. It's like a joke. A BIG joke.
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