Back in the glorious hey days of the mid Eighties, there was one rock band that truly symbolised Christianity in rock, and that band was the Yellow and Black Attack that was and still is Stryper.

Across this side of the pond, in Eastern Europe to be specific, a different, much heavier and more powerful platoon of soldiers were coming under command, under the ever watchful eye of creator and vocalist Ladislav Krizek.  So it was that in 1989, Czechoslovakian Christian Metal band Kreyson were born.

To celebrate two decades of Kreyson, the band headed back to the studio to re-record ten of their fan favourite numbers for this their first ever North American release.

In the twenty years that Kreyson have been together the rock scene has seen an incredible rise in Christian rock music, displayed in various genres from Hardcore Punk, Death Metal even through to (Satan forbid) Black Metal style offerings.

From the heavier offerings of Underoath and Bless The Fall, through to the Arena Pop meanderings of Paramore, today's musicians are truly proud to display their faith seemingly happy to discuss their religion during magazine interviews; they ultimately choose not to do so through their musical output.

Unlike Kreyson who like Stryper before them, choose to celebrate their faith in abundance, through the lyrical content of their songs.

The main problem I find with bands like this, are that unless you are a devoted, card carrying Christian, the songs start to become a touch tedious, and I was ultimately reaching for the off button long before the final number 'Salome.'

Saying that there are a few great Heavy Metal numbers on the album such as 'Judgement Day' and 'Cursing And Crying' that you can almost imagine yourself, sitting around an open fire, singing your heart out to at the Wacken festival, beer in hand, raising the horns...oh, perhaps not.

There is no mistaking the fact that vocalist Ladislav Krizek has a great pair of rock lungs on him, reaching notes almost inaudible to the human ear, along with guitarist Radek Kroc who displays some fine guitar mastery throughout the album.

My other concern with the album, aside from its heavily religious content, is the fans choice of songs for the album. If the ten cuts that made the album are the band's best offerings from the last two decades, then I certainly would have no urge to discover the rest of their back catalogue. It's not that the ten songs featured on the album are bad, but in comparison to their peers such as Running Wild, Primal Fear, and Helloween they pale in comparison.

Not a bad album by all means but when you consider in the last twelve months we have witnessed such acclaimed albums by Behemoth, Immortal and Dark Funeral then I can only conclude that the Devil does in fact have the best tunes.

http://www.myspace.com/kreysonnet