Cruella

Vengeance Is Mine / Shock The World

(c)1998 USA Records

Review by Neil St.Laurent

Thanks to Must Have Music for the CD

Must Have Music is in the business of promoting vintage music, at least as they call it, to those die hard collectors. This time they are offering Cruella, a typical 80's power metal band.

Long before Pantera managed to lay claim to the masters of modern power metal, the term meant something quite different: speedy guitar rhythms layered with solos. A large portion of the music on this CD shows the roots of emotional music, but never really quite takes that feeling far enough to be a truly emotional collection. There is of course only so much you'd come to expect from listening to a re-release of two 80's albums, the music production is fairly simple, which leaves the end result kind of simple. Of course one could say that modern production of such music doesn't help, as is the case with Iced Earth, and sometimes makes it worse.

Cruella is kind of interesting to listen to, a good history lesson, or a quick refresher. Many the components that should be labeled simple, or flat, are what comprise the roots of much of what is found in modern metal. Other than the NWOBHM bands like Iron Maiden, it was somewhat uncommon for a band to vary their song / album structure to include interludes, slower / faster components, and some non-standard riffing.

If you're looking for some older metal, this very long two album, one CD, collection of Cruella is definitely worth it. The second album is certainly more modern then the previous, and if you were to search out their newer albums yet, you would probably find progressively better music. A diverse musical style, that if you can put up with the older production, will be sure to please you.

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