Cr-Cri

Crabs (Germany): Wheel Of Fate (Penner CD 023, CD, 1997)
Rock/Metal/Psychedelic
Lea Bayer (lead vocals)
With their new wave-ish hard acid-rock style, Crabs are in many ways spiritual successors to their countrymen Arktis. Their sound is similarly muscular and powerful, but their songwriting never equals Arktis at their peak and Lea Bayer’s punkish vocals are sometimes rather tuneless. As a footnote, the band had previously issued a couple of cassettes with all-male line-ups, and the material here was recorded in 1994 but remained unreleased for three years due to their break-up. GRADE: C+.

Crack (Spain): Si Todo Hiciera Crack (Chapa-Discos HS-35.021, 1979)
Progressive

Cani (occasional vocals)
This is one of the best symphonic progressive albums of the late seventies, and among the finest such releases from Spain. With a soft yet varied and dynamic keyboard and flute-led sound, the music recalls everyone from Genesis to Jethro Tull across eight lush, melodic and inventive pieces. A guest female singer provides duet and prominent backing vocals on a few cuts. GRADE: B.

Louise Patricia Crane (UK): Deep Blue (Peculiar Doll PECUL001CD, with digipak, 2020)
Psychedelic
Louise Patricia Crane (lead vocals)
Recorded with musicians the calibre of Ian Anderson, Danny Thompson, and Jakko Jakszyk, this is a fine set of trippy psychedelia, with Crane’s carefully crafted songs swirling in a vortex of dreamlike sounds. As such, she’s very much the yang to the much more celebrated Rosalie Cunningham’s yin; all I could wish for is a less brash and more sympathetic mastering. GRADE: B–.
Louise Patricia Crane (UK): Netherworld (Peculiar Doll PECUL002CD, with digipak, 2024)
Singer/Songwriter/Folk/Rock
Louise Patricia Crane (lead vocals)
Netherworld reveals Ms Crane to be a musical magpie: whereas her first drew on all kinds of neo-psychedelia and dream-pop, this time round she’s pastiching the ethereal, semi-acoustic sound of Clannad and the neoprogressive bands they inspired. On the opening ‘Dance With The Devil’, the dramatic drums, uileann pipes and filmic spoken male voice take her close to the folky bombast of early Karnataka: not necessarily a positive development to these ears. The remainder is frequently quite lovely but her influences are perhaps a little too transparent and half the time you’ll be concluding that this is the best solo album Moya Brennan has released in many a year. GRADE: C+.

Crannog (UK): Crannog (No label CR1, 1979?)
Folk/Rock
Maureen Carter (joint lead vocals, guitar, whistle)Folk/rock with the emphasis on the rock, this enjoyable album sounds like Fairport Convention on steroids on the better tracks, with muscular guitars and powerful drums revitalising the traditional material. The numbers sung by Maureen Carter are softer and more reflective, however, and also quite effective. In particular, she does turn in a magnificently ethereal acid-folk rendition of ‘Copshawholme Fair’. As a footnote, this is one of the best-recorded private pressings I have encountered. GRADE: C+.

Crash (Poland): Every Day A Trial (Ja&Ro 005, West Germany, 1982)
Jazz/Rock
Grazyna Lobaszewska (lead vocals)
Whilst this Polish jazz-fusion album is overly slick and often rather clichéd, it does feature good musicianship, some complexity and an excellent recording. Most of the album is instrumental, but Grazyna Lobaszewska adds her soul-inflected voice to two of the seven cuts. For better and worse, their biggest influence was very likely Michal Urbaniak. GRADE: C+.

Crawling Walls (USA): Inner Limits (Voxx VXS-200.030, 1985)
Garage/Psychedelic/Progressive
Nancy Martinez (bass, backing vocals)
Typically for the Voxx label, this is sixties-influenced garage rock, with lots of trebly organ, a nice trippy feel and a cover to match. Lead vocalist and organist Bob Fountain provides an excellent set of songs with a few progressive and experimental moments, making it a shame that the band split up immediately after the LP’s release. In particular, the extended title track and the instrumental ‘Go-Go ’85’ are outstanding, demonstrating the band’s fine musicianship to great effect. As a footnote, the French pressing from the same year (Lolita 5043) features a completely different but equally psychedelic sleeve. GRADE: B–.

Crazy Canary (Denmark): Crazy Canary (Mercury 6344 227, with booklet, 1980)
Pop/Rock
Ida Klemann (joint lead vocals)
For some reason, Bifrost chose to issue their fourth album under the alter egos of Crazy Canary. There are three differences from Bifrost: everything is in English rather than Danish, everything is written by Tom Lundén, and Ida Klemann handles the bulk of the lead vocals. Musically, this is business as usual, with the best cut ‘I Can’t See You’ being both the shortest and the hardest rocking. GRADE: C+.
See also Bifrost, Ida Klemann

Jody & The Creams (UK): Jody And The Creams (Cordelia ERICAT 026(C), cassette, 1988)
Garage/Progressive
Ariadne Metal-Cream Pie, Blodwyn P Teabag
Alan Jenkins’s new band, following hot on the heels of the Deep Freeze Mice and Chrysanthemums, offers all-instrumental basement prog that’s filled with unexpected twists and turns but somewhat undermined by the programmed percussion and mediocre sound quality. Nonetheless, these playful jams, with plenty of synthesisers adding a modernistic ambience, contain plenty of enjoyable moments. If you listen closely, you can hear the beginnings of the surf music style that Jenkins et al would explore more fully as the Thurston Lava Tube. GRADE: C+.

Jody & The Creams (UK): A Big Dog.n (Cordelia CD 029, CD, 1990)
Pop/Psychedelic/Progressive/Avant-Garde
Ruth Miller (lead vocals), Ariadne Metal-Cream Pie (guitar, viola), Blodwyn P Teabag (keyboards, oboe), Geraldine Minou-Sullivan (drums)
The second Jody & The Creams album (on which the band is credited as a duo of Ariadne Metal-Cream Pie and Blodwyn P Teabag, plus guests) is very different from their debut cassette. This is a surreal mixture of wispy pop songs, pseudo-classical instrumental diversions and surreal conversations between the two women – all lo-fi, all drenched in echo, all pleasingly quirky and all utterly inconsequential.

GRADE: C+.
Jody & The Creams (UK): Lords Of The Grommet Canning Factory (Cordelia, cassette, 1991)
Progressive/Pop/Avant-Garde
Ariadne Metal-Cream Pie, Blodwyn P Teabag, Sherree Lawrence
Limited to 25 copies, this cassette contains reworkings of material from Ruth’s Refrigerator’s Suddenly A Disfigured Head Parachuted, indicating the high level of cross-fertilisation between Alan Jenkins’s various projects. Musically, it’s slightly different from earlier Creams albums, with more of a low-budget symphonic feel, often taking it closely to the chintzy bric-à-brac music of French acts like Look De Bouk. Although fragmentary and lightweight, it contains some fascinating moments, and is the Creams’ best release to date. The CD reissue (Pink Lemon PINK 005, Germany, 1998) adds numerous excellent bonus tracks. GRADE: B–.
Alan Jenkins & The Creams (UK): ie (Raffmond/Cordelia 20106, double, Germany, 1994)
Progressive/Psychedelic/Pop/Avant-Garde
Ariadne Metal-Cream Pie (joint lead vocals), Sherree Lawrence (joint lead vocals), Alison Mackinder (joint lead vocals), Blodwyn P Teabag (keyboards)
The Creams’ magnum opus is a surreal rock opera mixing an oddball narrative, spoken word sections and songs. Such efforts can be overly pretentious or can become tiresome, with the dialogue distracting from the music, but in this case it all comes together perfectly, and the songs are some of the best Alan Jenkins has written. As a footnote, the vinyl version includes a whole side of additional material. GRADE: B–.

Creams (UK): The Creams And Nico (Raffmond RAFF008 2, CD, Germany, 1994)
Pop/Psychedelic/Avant-Garde
Alison Mackinder (joint lead vocals, keyboards, violin, brass), Blodwyn P Teabag (keyboards, percussion, brass)
This is more pop-oriented than its predecessor, though only once does it directly channel the Velvet Underground & Nico. Nonetheless, there are plenty of experimental moments too, including some jazzy and experimental instrumentals, adding up to a constantly changing tapestry of music that’s consistently charming and engaging. GRADE: B–.
Creams (UK): Malcolm (Jarmusic JAR 016-CD, double 3" CD, with gatefold minisleeve, Germany, 1997)
Pop/Garage/Psychedelic
Blodwyn P Teabag, Dawn Larder
This odd little package – which runs for just over half an hour – focuses on the pop end of the Creams’ repertoire. It’s lovely, melodic stuff, but I do find myself missing the sheer eclecticism of their last couple of releases. GRADE: C+.

Creams (UK): Pluto (Raffmond RAFF 019-2, CD, with poster booklet, Germany, 1996)
Pop/Garage/Psychedelic
Alison Mackinder (joint lead vocals), Blodwyn P Teabag (keyboards)
Whilst this has some jazzy diversions, lots of electronics and plenty of the band’s trademark hour, it’s definitely at the straighter end of their repertoire. It’s a decent album by any measure, but how much you like it may depend on how whimsical you like your whimsy. GRADE: C+.
Creams (UK): The All Night Book Man (Jarmusic JAR 024, double CD, with digipak, Germany, 1998)
Pop/Psychedelic/Avant-Garde
Blodwyn P Teabag (keyboards, Theremin)
The band’s final album is a double running for over two hours, with the second disc rather more eccentric and interesting than the first. That’s not to say the first is exactly conventional, though it is more pop-oriented: it says Alan Jenkins (as white a man as one can imagine) discovering his love of black music, with homages to both soul and dub reggae. GRADE: B–.

Creams (UK): Net Yangers For The Pizza Froy (Cordelia CD097, CD, with gatefold minisleeve, 2020, recorded 1997)
Pop/Garage/Psychedelic
Blodwyn P Teabag (organ)
This retrospective live album, with excellent sound quality, focuses on the more straightforward, song-based end of the band’s repertoire. Its thoroughly enjoyable contents are probably best summed up by an anecdote recounted in the sleeve notes, in which another musician on the same bills asks Alan Jenkins whether the Creams are a ‘dreamy psychedelic band’ and Jenkins responds, ‘Dreamy? No, I don’t think you could call us dreamy; trashy would be a better word.’ GRADE: C+.

Creamy (USA): Creamy (OR 10, some on cream vinyl, 1996)
Jazz/Avant-Garde/Psychedelic
Michele Menard (lead vocals, tambourine), Wendy Niles (clarinet)
With a style betwixt free jazz and borderline Krautrock, this one-off album offers one lengthy improvisation per side. With a fairly cacophonous sound, it’s interesting in parts, but also (like most LPs of its type) diffuse, rambling and inconsistent. GRADE: C+.

Creamy Jobe (UK): Greatest Hits II (Release details unknown, 2000)
Rock
Anne-Marie Helder (joint lead vocals, keyboards, flute)
Creamy Jobe was the first band to feature the well-travelled Anne-Marie Helder, and their brand of melodic retro rock – sometimes folky and sometimes robust and riff-driven – provides a pretty good pointer as to her future direction. The band subsequently mutated into the trio Tigerdragon, which released two CDs that I have never encountered. As a footnote, I’m not clear as to whether this 28-minute EP was actually released at the time: Wikipedia insists it was subtitled Voices On Vinyl, which suggests that it appeared in that format, but I’m only familiar with it as a retrospective download. GRADE: C+.
See also Anne-Marie Helder, Karnataka, Luna Rossa, Mostly Autumn, Panic Room, Parade

Creched (UK): My Friend Jesus (No label AC 003, 1975?)

Folk/Rock

This mysterious white label album has the word ‘Creched’ (I think) handwritten on one label and ‘My Friend Jesus’ on the other, with ‘AC 003’ (presumably the catalogue number) written on the plain white sleeve. Musically it’s Christian folk/rock with full band backing and occasional strings: a bit sweet and twee if sometimes quite beautiful, and very professionally arranged and produced. It seems likely that this is an unreleased album intended for a specialist Christian label rather than a private pressing, though it’s possible that it was issued under a different band name and/or album title. Ultimately, all I can say with any degree of certainty is that it’s British (judging from the singer’s accent) and dates from the seventies. GRADE: C+.

Credemus (West Germany): Auf Dem Weg… (Werola 1560/82, with insert, 1982)
Progressive
Martina Brinkmann (joint lead vocals), Susanne Hess (joint lead vocals)
This Christian progressive album suffers a little from packing in lots of lyrics (virtually a given for the genre) but wisely eschews upbeat, happy-clappy praise material. Instead, it’s mostly downbeat and dreamy, with rich keyboard and guitar textures, peaking on the excellent sixteen-minute suite ‘Am Weiher’, which takes up most of side two. GRADE: C+.

Crest (Norway): Dark Rock Armada 1998-2000 (No label, CDR, 2000)
Metal
Nell Sigland (lead vocals), Tonie (keyboards)
The Crest are best remembered for launching the career of Nell Sigland, who went on to replace Liv Kristine Espenaes in Theatre Of Tragedy. However, they were a solid gothic metal band in their own right, as this 28-minute demo – limited to 250 numbered copies – makes clear. My own copy is an unnumbered promo, with a letter of introduction and a band flyer. GRADE: C+.
Crest (Norway): Letters From Fire (Season Of Mist SOM 059, CD, with digipak and booklet, France, 2002)
Metal
Nell Sigland (lead vocals, synthesiser)
Metal this certainly is, but heavy it isn’t: the massed electric guitars serve to create a lush wall of sound in exactly the same way that pedal steel guitar would have done had the Crest’s members been born thirty years earlier and in the USA. With all seven songs from the demo reworked here, there’s not much new in terms of material; and despite a few trip-hop touches not much new in terms of style either, though this is a very likeable and listenable record. GRADE: C+.

Crest (Norway): Vain City Chronicles (Season Of Mist SOM 106, CD, with digipak and booklet, France, 2005)
Metal
Nell Sigland (lead vocals)
I was initially convinced that this reprised songs from their earlier albums, but it doesn’t; it’s simply that they haven’t progressed in any way. Nonetheless, they’re undeniably very good at what they do, with their penchant for quasi-Oriental guitar lines adding distinctiveness to their otherwise generic sound and the glossy pop edges providing an unusual (but welcome) sheen. GRADE: C+.

See also Theatre Of Tragedy

Janie Cribbs (Ireland): No Illusion (No label, CD, USA, 1999)
Rock
Janie Cribbs (lead vocals)
Recorded in the USA, the former Midnight Well vocalist’s solo album is of that rootsy brand of American rock performed by Alannah Myles or Shania Twain (though this doesn’t have any country edges). It’s very well done too, with first-rate original songs and a superb production, so she was unlucky not to achieve commercial success with this. GRADE: C+.
See also Midnight Well

Crimson Altar (USA): Clairvoyance (No label, cassette, 2016)
Metal
Alexis Kralicek (lead vocals, flute)
Seventies-style doom band fronted by a female singer-cum-flautist? Reference to blood and occult practices in the name? We all know who I mean, don’t we? Well, actually no, though on the evidence of this four-track single-sided EP it’s probably fair to say that Blood Ceremony were the biggest influence on Crimson Altar. On this debut, they don’t have the majesty or the suppleness of Blood Ceremony – the drumming plods and the riffs are a little samey – but there’s definite promise here. GRADE: C+.
Crimson Altar (USA): MMXVII (No label, cassette, 2018)
Metal
Alexis Kralicek (lead vocals, flute)
A big step forward from their tentative debut, this second EP is vastly better recorded, giving their crushing, spacy riffs the space and majesty they deserve. Meanwhile, a couple of acoustic interludes add welcome variety, preventing the set from becoming one-dimensional. The drumming still plods occasionally and Alexis Kralicek sings flat in a couple of places, but at its best this is truly high-class doom.

GRADE: B–.

Crimson Altar (USA): The Dwelling (No label, CDR, 2019)
Metal
Alexis Kralicek (lead vocals, flute)
Stepping forward from their second cassette, this is an impressive set of seventies-style doom and a world away from their rather hesitant debut. Once again, there’s a strong resemblance to Blood Ceremony, both conceptually and musically, but then again doom isn’t a genre in which many bands have a truly distinctive sound. GRADE: B–.

Crimson Bridge (USA): The Crimson Bridge (Myrrh MST-6503-LP, 1972)
Jazz/Funk/Rock/Progressive
Trish Rattan (joint lead vocals), Carolyn Shafer (occasional vocals, keyboards), Carol Healy (occasional vocals, flute)
A sort of Christian answer to brass-rock bands like Blood Sweat & Tears and Chicago, Crimson Bridge offered five shorter songs on the first side and a lengthy suite on the second. The short songs sound extremely dated nowadays, with their syncopated horns, impassioned call-and-response vocals, funky rhythms and louche, sensual slow passages, calling to mind images of hip seventies bachelor pads, but they’re thoroughly enjoyable nonetheless. The suite, meanwhile, is beautifully crafted and much more varied, with some almost liturgical passages of great beauty. Overall, this is one of the most interesting and adventurous records released by the generally rather undistinguished Myrrh label. GRADE: B–.

Crippled Black Phoenix (UK): A Love Of Shared Disasters (Invada INV-035, CD, with digipak and booklet, 2007)
Progressive
Charlotte Nicholls (cello)
Crippled Black Phoenix’s style is rather odd and difficult to describe: essentially a mix of lo-fi folky songs, post-rock, dark prog and sound effects, with a cinematic yet low-key quality. It’s not all good, and the mastering is so compressed it will make your ears bleed, but there’s plenty of fine music here so this is a promising debut indeed. In 2020, the band issued the unmastered instrumental demos for the album as a download entitled A Love Of Instrumental Disasters, noting that it is ‘even more soundtrack sounding’. That description is right on the money: it may be even better than the original album, whilst not quite as diverse, and has superb dynamics. GRADE: B–.
Crippled Black Phoenix (UK): The Resurrectionists & Night Raider (Invada INV075, double CD, with minisleeves, booklet and box, 2009)
Progressive
Charlotte Nicholls (occasional vocals, cello)
Compiling the band’s recordings between 2007 and 2009, these features two separate albums with a total running time of 120 minutes. The Resurrectionists is the longer and straighter of the two, offering mellow melodic prog and folky rock, whilst on Night Raider they channel everyone from Tom Waits to Pink Floyd and even take a diversion into circus music. Like their debut, it’s fascinatingly odd, intermittently brilliant, sometimes baffling and mostly very enjoyable. GRADE: B–.
Crippled Black Phoenix (UK): I, Vigilante (Invada INV95, CD, with digipak, 2010)
Progressive/Metal
Daisy Chapman (joint lead vocals, keyboards), Charlotte Nicholls (occasional vocals, cello)
Notwithstanding the unexpected sixties-styled closer, this is straighter (and at 48 minutes, rather more concise) than their previous work, moving Crippled Black Phoenix closer to metal and classic rock. That’s not to say it’s a step down: the music here is frequently majestic and very impressive, whilst new keyboardist Daisy Chapman has a lovely voice that she uses to great effect on the last couple of tracks.

GRADE: B–.

Crippled Black Phoenix (UK): (Mankind) The Crafty Ape (Cool Green Recordings CGR 7360 2, double CD, with digipak and booklet, Holland, 2012)
Progressive/Metal
Daisy Chapman (occasional vocals, piano), Belinda Kordic (occasional vocals)
On this garguantuan 86-minute set, the band’s Pink Floyd influence becomes more obvious, though the music here is darker, doomier and more assertive. Along the way they flirt with glam-rock, include quite a few horns and weave all kinds of influence into a constantly changing tapestry of fascinating, powerful, dynamic music. GRADE: B–.
Crippled Black Phoenix (UK): Poznan 2011 AD (Clearview CRVW-59, triple LP, clear vinyl, with postcard, USA, 2012)
Progressive
Miriam Wolf
The band's first live album (also available as an even more limited set of six single-sided orange vinyl LPs in a box and canvas bag, and released the following year as a double CD) features a two-hour running time and a good cross-section of their material. However – whilst there’s nothing exactly wrong with them – I don’t find these versions have the heft of the originals, and the album as a whole lacks the derring-do of their studio albums. GRADE: C+.

Crippled Black Phoenix (UK): (Mankind) Live In Bern 2012 AD (No label, download, 2012)
Progressive
Miriam Wolf (occasional vocals, piano)
I still prefer Crippled Black Phoenix in the studio, but this time the difference is marginal – this live set (all two-and-a-half-hours-plus of it) is better all round than its predecessor. A superb recording has something to do with it, as does the band concentrating on the more progressive and exploratory end of its repertoire, but ultimately they simply sound more engaged and hence more engaging. GRADE: B–.
Crippled Black Phoenix (UK): White Light Generator (Cool Green Recordings CGR 7430 1, double plus 7", one LP on white vinyl, with inners, 2014)
Progressive
Daisy Chapman (piano, backing vocals)
Whilst this is perhaps less surprising than their earlier studio albums, it wins out on sheer consistency – this is truly majestic music that’s melodic, heavy and portentous in all the right ways. GRADE: B–.

Crippled Black Phoenix & Se Delan (UK): Oh’Ech-oes (Clearview CRVW-65, CD, with gatefold minisleeve and poster, USA, 2015)
Progressive
Belinda Kordic, Daisy Chapman
Jointly credited to Crippled Black Phoenix and side-project Se Delan, this consists entirely of an album-length cover of Pink Floyd’s ‘Echoes’ (with ‘Childhood’s End’ and, more improbably, ‘Telstar’ interpolated into the second part). It’s wonderful stuff, with the band bringing their own style to bear on Floyd’s already exceptional composition, and is a superb and unusual addition to their discography. GRADE: B–.
Crippled Black Phoenix (UK): Destroy Freak Valley (Rock Freaks RFR 007, double, black and white marbled vinyl, Germany, 2016)
Progressive
Daisy Chapman (piano, backing vocals), Belinda Kordic (backing vocals)
This is certainly one of their better live recordings, with excellent sound quality, a well-chosen setlist and powerful, assertive performances. In fact, it’s so good that it’s little wonder that every physical version released thus far has become a major collectible. GRADE: B–.

Crippled Black Phoenix (UK): Bronze (Season Of Mist SOM 399LP, double plus 7", gold or silver vinyl, with insert, France, 2016)
Progressive
Daisy Chapman, Belinda Kordic
Another excellent album from Crippled Black Phoenix, who at this juncture appear incapable of releasing poor or even mediocre music. Richly melodic, powerful and atmospheric, this is truly modern progressive rock, owing little to the seventies in terms of structure or execution but plenty in terms of its pioneering spirit. GRADE: B–.

Crippled Black Phoenix (UK): Great Escape (Season Of Mist SOM 491B, double CD, with digibook, France, 2018)
Progressive
Belinda Kordic (occasional vocals), Helen Stanley (keyboards, trumpet, backing vocals)
Crippled Black Phoenix are a thoroughly modern prog band – of that post-Anekdoten kind of outfit that uses texture rather tempo as a contrast. But that’s not to say they don’t sometimes wear their seventies hearts on their sleeves, and this is a case in point, with a stronger-than-usual Pink Floyd influence. There are plenty more influences thrown into the mix, however, resulting in a sonic stew that’s rich, tasting, nourishing and genuinely majestic. GRADE: B–.
Crippled Black Phoenix (UK): Ellengaest (Season Of Mist SOM 574, CD, with digipak and booklet, France, 2020)
Progressive
Belinda Kordic (joint lead vocals), Helen Stanley (keyboards, trumpet)
As usual, ‘majestic’ is the operative adjective for the band’s music, though ‘Floydian’ regularly springs to mind. The stately tempos, metal-influenced riffs and wall-of-sound production deliver sonic heft in industrial quantities, and if there isn’t any obvious artistic progression from one Crippled Black Phoenix album to another, they’re sufficiently varied that they’re all worth owning yet all sufficiently homogenous that nobody is likely to end up disappointed. More importantly, they’re all consistently excellent, showcasing a band that really knows its audience and has truly mastered its style. GRADE: B–.

Crippled Black Phoenix (UK): Banefyre (Season of Mist SOM 646B, digipak, with box, patch and pin, 2022)
Progressive
Belinda Kordic (joint lead vocals), Helen Stanley (keyboards, trumpet)
Crippled Black Phoenix’s distinctive sound is genuinely difficult to describe. Anathema-meets-shoegaze, maybe? Early seventies Pink Floyd-goes-metal, perhaps? A much heavier Pure Reason Revolution without the dainty harmonies, at a push? But whatever you’d call it, I’d call them one of the most remarkable bands working today. GRADE: B–.

Geoff Cripps & Louisa Rugg (UK): Icarus (Steam Pie SPR 1003 S, 1985)
Folk
Louisa Rugg (principal vocals)
This unusual folk duo consisted of singer Louisa Rugg and singer and multi-instrumentalist Geoff Cripps, who plays guitars, basses, keyboards and psaltery. Whilst acoustic guitar is the main accompaniment, Cripps also adds swirling synthesisers on most cuts, perfectly complementing Rugg’s beautiful voice, especially on the elegiac ‘Since You Asked’. None of the material is self-penned, with a mixture of covers and traditional songs, including a version of Maddy Prior’s ‘Anthem To Failure’. GRADE: C+.

Crisálida (Chile): Crisálida (Mylodon MyloCD045, CD, 2006)
Metal
Cinthia Santibáñez
Although marketed as progressive, this is fairly straightforward metal with solid musicianship but little in the way of ambition. Whilst basic, it’s listenable enough, with a few decent riffs and solos. GRADE: C+.
Crisálida (Chile): Raco (Mylodon MyloCD073, CD, 2009)
Progressive/Metal
Cinthia Santibáñez (lead vocals)
Quite different from their first, this is more a symphonic progressive album with strong metal edges than the other way round. The end result is an interesting and sometimes quite ambitious LP that shows them taking a significant leap forward. GRADE: C+.
Crisálida (Chile): Solar (Muséa FGBG 4901, CD, with digipak and booklet, France, 2012)
Metal/Progressive
Cinthia Santibáñez (principal vocals)
Album number three again offers atmospheric, mid-paced music with some powerful, dramatic riffing used to excellent effect. Sometimes this is stunning, and if everything were at the same level as the best moments, it would be a minor classic. GRADE: C+.

Crisálida (Chile): Terra Ancestral (Mechanix MCHX 1006-1, LP plus CD, with inner, UK, 2015)
Metal/Progressive
Cinthia Santibáñez (lead vocals)
This concept album about the plight of Patagonian natives doesn’t equal the best moments of its predecessor, but it’s a solid set of symphonic hard rock and metal. However, like a lot of the band’s work, its all very understated and very much of a piece; when they stretch out a little on the longest cut ‘Kawesqar’, the contrast to the remainder of the LP is remarkable. Oddly, the vinyl and CD have different running orders. GRADE: C+.