Dreamcypher

Cruxshadows | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 16, 2007)
• Original Release Date: July 16, 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Dancing Ferret
• ASIN: B000K2VLM4
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #99,048 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #26 in Music > Alternative Rock > Goth & Industrial > Industrial > General

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist

One of the most popular Darkwave bands internationally, the Crüxshadows started in the early 1990's in a little town in North Florida. Over the last 15 years their success among the gothic, ebm, new wave, & dark electronic genres has earned them a near legendary underground status. With a constant and ambitious release schedule, and a dizzying live performance itinerary, they have turned conventional wisdom on it's ear & maintained their position among the scenes elite from each year to the next. They have played many hundreds of shows worldwide including concerts in Norway, Sweden, Scotland, Ireland, England, Belgium, The Netherlands, Poland, France, Hungary, The Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Portugal, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Canada, Spain, The United States, and many, many more. They were one of the first Western acts to play in Romania & Serbia following the cold war. In recent years they have had several alternative chart toppers in Western Europe and their festival shows have drawn audiences as large as 18,000+ people to a Crüxshadows performance (in front of the stage). In 2005 the Crüxshadows headlined Bochum Total- a German downtown festival, that over 4 days drew an estimated 950,000 people.

A blend of new wave, gothic, and electronica, the band's unique and often catchy songs have become staples of the darkwave, ebm, and electro-alternative scene.

The band's uniqueness transcends the realm of dance or club music. The rich and romantic flavor of the electric violin played by Rachel McDonnell, mixed with crunchy and sometimes biting guitar lines laid down by George Bikos, gives the Crüxshadows a wide berth of musical possibilities. This is juxtaposed with the cold digital world of electronic textures and synthesis associated often with synth-pop and EBM. Add the moody musings of front man, composer, founder, and lead singer Rogue, and you have a guarantee that this band is anything but typical. With over 11 CDs, a DVD, and more compilation appearances than you can count, The Crüxshadows have made themselves synonymous with a new breed of electro-goth music. Their energy and intensity on stage led them to be called "the best live band in Europe today" by the host of Hamburg's popular Crazy Clip Show and their performances have been aired regularly on German national television. If you have an opportunity to see them live, don't pass it up.

In 2005 The Cruxshadows was voted the #5 best band in the EBM, Darkwave, Gothic, & Industrial scene (all time) in a recent international poll hosted by the Wave Gothic Treffen.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Album, January 24, 2007

By 

Jem (MD, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dreamcypher (Audio CD)

This is one of those rare CDs where I like almost all the songs. Each successive release from the Cruxshadows has been better than the last--with consistently high quality tracks.

Dreamcypher has several great dance tracks (like Ariadne, Sophia and Windbringer), a few beautiful ballads (Memorare, Eye of the Storm) and, as always, stirring lyrics from Rogue. Several tracks make you stop and think about what's being said. Birthday asks a thought-provoking question--life is short, and what do we want to do with it? Once again, ancient myths are used as inspiration such as with Ariadne and Pygmalion's Dream. I have to disagree with the reviewer who wants less mythology. I'm tired of recent music being all chorus and no meat. It is possible to listen to a song AND dance to it! Perfect is a beautiful song to a lover who doesn't realize how much she means to her partner, "I don't think you realize, you are perfect in my eyes." Defender is a nice complement to Return (Coming Home) from their album Wishfire. The only song on the disck I didn't care for at all was Sleepwalking, and others may enjoy it.

My only small criticism is that many of the songs are too long, 6 and 7 minutes. That's great in a dance club, but for listening in the car or at home I'd prefer a more standard edit. Hopefully, there will be an EP with remixes and radio edits. Plus, it may help them get more radio play.

Overall, I highly recommend this album to anyone who enjoys club, or dance music. Cruxshadows fans will, of course, be delighted.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars They're so close..., January 27, 2007

By 

Nails in My Head - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreamcypher (Audio CD)

The Cruxshadows have been getting more and more digestable with each release. Dreamscypher is the logical continuation of Cruxshadow's journey into pop-songs, and boy, do they get it right! Wishfire laid the groundwork for the bouncy beats on Dreamcypher, but what's really new are the pop hooks.

"Sophia," the single from last year, played with pop-sensibility, but threw catchiness away in favour of a more "winterborn"-esque dancefloor formula. "Perfect," (a new song) however, takes a truly pop lyric set, and sets it to a bubbly new-wave influenced hook. It's the first song by the Cruxshadows that could concievably see radio play. It's just a little too long, clocking in at a solid 7 minutes.

"Elissia" is the second song with a hook, this time given by Rougue's punchy vocal delivery. And so the album continues. The usual hard guitars and violins are all still there for you purists, but this time they consistently come together into songs, unlike previously, where they would only do so on one song per album.

Dreamcypher, ultimately, feels kind of like the Cure's Disintegration in that it takes pop formulas, applies a romantic instrumentation, and stretches the finished product into 7 minute epics.

The best album yet. I even like the ballads this round.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A new fan., February 9, 2007

By 

Rayn Drahps (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreamcypher (Audio CD)

I don't know how I ended up at the show. I guess I went to see one of the opening bands as well as just to get out, shoot some pictures and have a good night of music before returning to the work week.

My initial plan was to catch the opening acts then leave before it got too late. What happened instead was what I will remember as one of the best performances I've seen. For a band I'd only heard of in passing and maybe heard on a web radio station without realizing who the music was from, I ended up being an instant fan. Rogue's stage (and crowd, and hanging from the rafters while singing) performance captured and commanded me to listen from the second he brushed by me on his way to the stage at the beginning of the show all the way until the very end.

I ended up buying as many albums as I could and while the old material is good too, Dreamcypher is an amazing album from start to finish. One of the other reviews faults Rogue for his (over)use of mythological references, I disagree because his lyrics are so powerful they almost command you to track down all the stories he sings about in his songs and find out why these stories made such an impact to him. If people calmly dismiss this band as fun and danceable without diving into the lyrics and stories (actual stories like the old old days!) then they are missing out. To those of us who like dance music but get sick of the trite lyrics that get embedded into the songs this band is like our generation, full of hyper-linking and sharing. I like anything in general that makes me think as well as give me references to research on my own. I came out of the show feeling a wash of emotions, my friend and I were both entirely speechless on our cab ride home and woke up the next morning with a sense of hope that this planet have some good things left on it after all.

If you don't like well written lyrics, strings in your industrial or a message other than fighting the system then this band is not going to be for you. For me it hit like a cannonball through the heart.