Crystal Pride - s/t (1985)

When I heard the rousing, rebellious screams of Young Heart Attack vocalist Jennifer Stephens a few years back, I felt as though my life was complete - here was a sexy yet fiery femme fatale who had a blisterings et of heavy metal pipes. Heavy metal has, over the years, baosted some great female vocalists, but often they were too sultry, but then I cam across the banshee wail of Susie Christensen, vocal queen of the little known Crystal Pride, an '80s metal band who rip the hairs off your chest and put lead in your pencil. This is a blistering attack of a record, an obscurity that pumps the veins and crushes the brain, a full frontal atatck lead by the glass shattering wails of Christensen, and the warrior guitars of Michael Lundberg and Christer Taimi. This is about as metal as it gets, whether in the form of mid tempo dragon slaying 'Evil Force' or searing hot 'Let You Go' with its strutting groove and high pitched vocal which brings to mind Miss Stephens, although this is several decades previous. I love straight forward molten metal, especially when the band in question is relatively unknown. Crystal Pride also have subtle touches too, the piano-led 'Flight Of Heart' simmers perfectly until two minutes in when the guitars explode. This is fantastic '80s metal...where are they now ? 8/10