adg211288 Iceland is a demo release from Russian act Crimson Blue. It is available for free download and contains an admittedly oddball mix of styles that the band has branded as ‘Nu Art Metal’. I don’t care for the tag personally, since I associate the ‘Nu’ bit with Nu-Metal, and Iceland is anything but, although I do detect an Alternative influence in some of the riffs in these songs, mostly in L. M. A. and Flax. Generally I’d put this down as Progressive Metal, but I guess Avant-Garde could also be accurate. It’s very difficult to decide though. My confusion over what to consider this isn’t due to lack of listening and ignorance on my part, it’s because Crimson Blue seems perfectly happy to change style with almost every track they deliver on Iceland.

To further explain that, the opening track here is Forest and it’s one of the best. The sound is characterised by a dark gothic tone and heavy riffs, topped off with the crystal clear vocals of Dani Hellstrom. The band does an about face though in the next track, Ave Sensorium, which is more along the lines of progressive rock and not remotely metal. The band quickly shows that these changes in style are clearly a staple of Crimson Blue because although they return to sound metal on the third track, L. M. A., it’s a very different sound than heard on Forest, sounding very down-tuned and to be honest it kind of reminds me of Korn but with a female vocal. The changes continue throughout, with the title track sounding out as another firm highlight, as is Haesitatio, the longest track which features several distinct sounds. To be honest the only two tracks out of the seven that sound remotely in the same vein are L.M.A. and Flax. The only track I haven’t mentioned yet is Coma Angel, which is a nice ballad.

With all these changes the demo succeeds in a really good way in keeping me interested. The sound is fresh and the only thing predictable about it is that it’s not, if you know what I mean. The only thing that concerns me is that with a band of this nature is that listeners may find that they like some songs and not others. Personally I found the entire demo highly enjoyable, even when they touch on styles that I don’t normally enjoy, such as in L. M. A., so hopefully others will be like me and take note of this band, because if there’s one thing that Iceland leaves me thinking it’s that Crimson Blue has serious potential. This demo is strong as it is, but I expect that in an album context Crimson Blue will be a very formidable force.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven, scored at 8.2/10)