The Cruxshadows: album reviews and ratings

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Reviews & Recommendations

I am the incarnation of your delusions, or your insight... -- Before the Fire, Cruxshadows	The Crüxshadows

Artist Listing:

S - Z

Line-up:
- Rogue (lyrics, music, vocals)
- Rachel McDonnell (violin, keyboards)
- George Bikos (guitars)
- Pyromantic (live keyboards, back-up vocalist)
Previous band members:
- Chris Brantley (keyboards, backing vocals)
- Stacey Campbell (guitars, backing vocals)

"The Cruxshadows manage to take the gothic sensibility to heartfelt introspection. There is a lot of pride and humility carefully woven into the body of songs which makes the entire outfit so endearing that you can't help but cheer their success. Rogue takes his lyrics to such impassioned heights when he sings the choral verses that you want to sing along and, somehow, he makes you feel like he wouldn't mind the company along the way. Many of these songs have generous dance beats geared for club play. "

-- Mike Ventarola , legendsmagazine.net

The Cruxshadows Discography - Album / CD Reviews

1993: ...Night Crawls In
Track Listing: 1. Bloodline 2. Sympathy for Tomorrow 3. Pornography 4. Last Breath 5. Leave Me Alone 6. Chains 7. Children in Black 8. Touch 9. Black Heart & a Hammer 10. I Shot Tomorrow 11. Siren Song
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¼ 1997: Telemetry of a Fallen Angel
Line up (1997): Rogue - (vocals, lyrics, violins, kawai drums, backing vocals) Tim Curry - (guitars, backing vocals) Sean Flanagan - (keyboards, samples, sequences, roland drums, backing vocals)

Musicfolio picks: Marilyn My Bitterness, Monsters, Clerestory.
"For those few who aren't yet familiar with the band, this album is a dark and poetic yet dancefloor friendly work that avoids musical cliches in favor of originality and a healthy dose of pop sensibility. Where many others follow a formula, the The Crüxshadows offer something truly original. Fans of eighties synth-pop and new wave acts (such as Depeche Mode, Gary Numan, The Eurythmics, Duran Duran, and the like) are especially likely to enjoy The Crüxshadows. Telemetry is a concept album that combines ancient Egpytian religion with a futuristic tale of a probe launced to the planet Mars. Only through lyricist Rogue's unique artistic vision can these two subjects be interwoven so seamlessly."

-- Dancing Ferret Discs, ferret.com/discs

1999: The Mystery Of The Whisper
"The Cruxshadows' (pronounced: Croo-shadows) latest offering demonstrates this band is built to last. Many have heard their song Monsters on the Black Bible compilation and may be anticipating some more of the same playful spooky goth dance chords. Wipe that sound from your head and take notice that this band strives for yet another sound that will begin a new rage. The Mystery Of The Whisper brilliantly combines elements of Egyptian style sounds and marries them to gothic industrial chords on some of the songs featured on this disc. The current hit being passed around these days is Cruelty, however that is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg of how wonderful this CD sounds. The lyrics are timely and poetic - you may find yourself listening to a particular passage repeatedly, somewhat stunned that the gamut of your emotions have been put to recorded music like no other artist has done in quite some time. The only major drawback is the print inside the CD cover which is rather small, especially for some of us elder goths. However the band humbly apologizes for this. Considering the scope and the breadth in which they have created this body of work, it is seriously doubted that their fans will mind all that much."

-- Mike Ventarola , legendsmagazine.net

¾ 2002: Wishfire
"The Cruxshadows are back with a new release, and Wishfire is an assertion of their masterful talent of blending classic gothic music interlaced with driving modern industrial beats. There's nothing more luring than Rachel's backing violin chords, to complement textured keyboard layering with introspective and passionate lyrics:
' If time and tide refuse to wait remind them who they are,
each second drained from the hour-glass is born a distant star' From uptempo dancefloor cuts like Tears, and The Seraphs, to the reflective Roman, the captivating Go Away, and the willowy charm of Carnival, Wishfire seems to have it all. Generously packed with 14 tracks totalling more than 66 min of playtime, it's a sure contender for our Top 15 albums of 2002! "

-- Said Sukkarieh, musicfolio.com, 08/02

2003: Frozen Embers (EP)
Tracklisting: 01. Winter Born (album version) 02. Dancefloor Metaphor 03. Return (Coming Home) (Dreamsideremix part 1) 04. Return (Coming Home) (DreamsideRemix part 2) 05. Seraphs (Revox Lost Souls Mix) 06. Winter Born (Club/Radio edit) 07. Go Away (Future Bible Heroes Remix) 08. Sinking 09. Return (Coming Home) (Assemblage 23 Remix) 10. Winter Born (Sacrificial Acoustic Version) 11. Return (Coming Home) (Robbie Tronco/Dj Ferret Remix) 12. Return (Coming Home) (Dj Ian Fford 555 Mix) 13. Deception (Original English Version)
A remix EP consisting of one new song Winterborn, and several remixes of songs taken mainly from their latest album Wishfire.

½ 2003: Ethernaut
Tracklisting: 01. Into the Ether 02. Cassandra 03. Love and Hatred 04. Flames 05. The Sentiment Inside 06. Winterborn (This Sacrifice) 07. Untrue 08. A Stranger Moment 09. Waiting to Leave 10. East 11. Citadel 12. Afterall
"On a first casual listen you might not think much of the new Cruxshadows album 'Ethernaut', although some catchy synth lines like those on Waiting To Leave swiftly grab the listeners attention. Maybe it's because of its heavy reliance on 80s style percussions and synthetizers, the subpar female backing vocals, or the simplistic guitar chords. But a few more CD spins start uncovering the underlying beauty of several tracks: Rogue's imposing vocals on the opener track and The Sentiment Inside command attention, the latter song being one of the strongest ballads on the album. The single Winterborn, previously released on the 'Frozen Embers' EP earlier this year, captures this hard-to-define Cruxshadows signature style. East is another highlight of the record, sounding almost like a modern industrialized version of Bauhaus. And interestingly enough, one of most enchanting melodies on this album is the hidden track , Nothing Left But Me, fused with all the right ingredients: Rogue's powerful voice, Rachel's captivating violin, and that undeniable romanticism. Overall, 'Ethernaut' might fall a few grains of sand short of Wishfire, but still is an honest and emotive album complementing The Cruxshadows' deserving darkwave journey."

-- DJ Avalanche, musicfolio.com, 11/03

½ 2007: Dreamcypher
Tracklisting: 1. Pygmalion's Dream 2. Windbringer 3. Sophia 4. Defender 5. Perfect 6. Elissa 7. Eye of the Storm 8. Ariadne 9. Sleepwalking 10. Solus 11. Dido's Reply 12. Memorare 13. Birthday 14. Kisses 3
"... Hailing from Florida, band frontman Virgil Roger du Pont aka Rogue, surrounds his dramatic "goth metal" lyrics with catchy, synth-driven pop grooves. (...) The Cruxshadows have managed to package themselves for a certain mainstream niche. Hard to believe? The album's September single Sophia debuted on top of the Billboard Dance Singles charts and seventh on the Singles charts. Sophia starts out with the oft-used spacey ambient intro, but features mixed computer speech a la Benny Benassi. It then features a typical metal exchange between dreary sounding vocals and rhythm guitar, the latter being overpowered by a crunchy synth line. The song's better points come when there are transitions into sections with surprisingly upbeat lyrics and major chords, giving a nice contrast to the darker tones. The song's lyrics, though, are its main weak point. Most of the album's words are in fact too bland to stand out as goth rock lyrics and come across pretentious and whiney to the mainstream listener. (...) Windbringer starts out with a run-of-the-mill '80s pop staccato synth line and beat and makes far less drastic transitions, simply switching off between the metal guitar and the cheesy synth lead. Defender then makes a nice follow-up to Sophia, bringing listeners back to Eurotrash with a pulsing quarter note bass line. Perfect is one of the album's catchier tracks, shedding all but a sliver of the band's goth sound and adding an ample mixing of Big Beat drum lines with an arena rock chorus and '80s pop grooves that are reminiscent of early house music. Elissa is an amusingly confusing mix of post-relationship break-up lyrics with scratchy, simplistic synth lines, like the illegitimate child of Taking Back Sunday and Aphex Twin. Eye of the Storm is slower and sparser, incorporating a cinematic string line that makes it sound like what would happen if Moby were bitten by a vampire..."

-- Quincy Browne, tuftsdaily.com, 01/07

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