Peanut butter and jelly, bacon and eggs, grilled cheese and tomato soup, cookies and cream, spaghetti and meatballs. There have been many great food duos discovered over the history of food pairing.

Why should music be any different? I always like to say that punk rock and metal go together like salt and pepper, but I think this weeks review, will really caramelize that idea for me.

 

 

 

Crystal Fairy – Crystal Fairy
released February 24, 2017
******** 8/10

 

Crystal Fairy are an ensemble band composed of some extra special American and Mexican rockers. Featuring the incredible talents of veterans Buzz Osborne and Dale Crover (The Melvins), Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (At The Drive-In), and fronted by Teri Gender Bender (Le Butcherettes), Crystal Fairy are the best parts of punk, rock and metal all rolled into one..

They formed back in early 2016 and have spent the better part of the last year putting together songs that would eventually become a full-length album self-titled as Crystal Fairy.

To put it rather simply, this truly is an original and interesting effort because it combines the instrumental sounds of The Melvins with the vocals of Teri Gender Bender. If you are familiar with both bands Crystal Fairy sounds exactly like what you would expect it to… a punk rock opera of thrash and, believe it or not, pop.

The album plays fast and loose and takes no prisoners in it’s wake.

I suspect a lot that is owed to the fact that all of the members have had previous collaborations in one capacity or another. Which means that everyone gets to bring their strengths in without worrying about overstepping, and it works quite well.

I wouldn’t call this a super group though, because while each of the members have been successful in their own right, none of them have attained the level of ego that comes with large commercial success, and the music is better for it.

It’s an odd marriage of rock tempos, thrashing guitars and vocal intensity, but the combination of sounds allows the whole thing to feel cohesive, even when we switch between subdued and bravado. It really is difficult for me to review this album and not focus on Teri’s performance in particular. A couple of my favourites are the slower paced Moth Tongue and Necklace of Divorce, but that doesn’t mean that title track Crystal Fairy and album closer Vampire X-Mas aren’t praiseworthy.

If you don’t like metal music, you should listen to this album, it’ll change your mind. If you don’t like punk rock, well you should listen to this album, because it’ll change your mind. Now, if you don’t like pop, I really think you should listen to this album, as it’ll change your mind. But if you don’t like bilingual tracks, you’ve obviously had a bad time, so you should listen to this album, I swear it’ll change your mind.

No lie, this is probably one of the fastest album I’ve listened to in months. The energy within these tracks is infectious and while it doesn’t do anything innovative, that doesn’t mean it ain’t a hell of a lot of fun to listen to.

 

Crystal Fairy might not be quite as good as butter and corn. Yet. But I can assure you that as we get using to see this pairing for the genius punk rock with metal hybrid that it is, we’ll become more comfortable with this notion and both forms will see a resurgence in popularity once again. Seriously, I can see these guys giving both brands a boost in popularity. But that’s just a theory.

Tim!