Band:	The Crest
Album:	Letters From Fire
Style:	Gothic metal, Gothic rock
Release date:	December 2002

01. Fire Walk With Me
02. Butterflies & Dragons
03. Thorn
04. Never Sleep Again
05. Childhood's End
06. Pills For Broken Dreams
07. In This Cage
08. Triangle
09. Frozen Garden
10. Monument
11. Armada

I think the most multifaceted of all sub-genres of Metal is Gothic Metal, I mean, you have your beauty-and-the beast Gothic Metal, your Melancholic Finnish Gothic Metal, your bombastic, symphonic with big choirs Gothic Metal, and the Gothic Metal that borderlines with pop rock, often called Gothic rock.

The latter case is the case of Norwegians The Crest, the first thing that came into my mind when the first spin ended was Lacuna Coil, the songs here are catchy and melodious, almost poppy In certain way, the real highlight here is the enchanting voice of Nell Sigland, her voice is the main attraction of the band since the sound is nothing groundbreaking.

The opener "Fire Walk With Me" is without argument the hit song in the album, and my favorite one too, other songs that might drawn attention from the listener are "Thorns" and "Childhood's End", I'm sure that some of your non-metal friends will like the whole album.

The question is, Is this Metal? Well, yes, it falls into some of the mellow, softer genres of Metal, but in my books classifies as Metal, a little weird though, that this band is signed to an extreme Metal label such as Season Of Mist.

For a debut album is not bad at all, but I would preferred some more aggression, the guitars are too weak and maybe a more clever use of keyboards could give the band a boost, because sometimes when I put this Cd, I pop it out after 6 songs, it can get really boring and repetitive.

So, invite some non-metal friends over for some beers at your house and put this on, I'm sure they won't complain this time about those "undecipherable noises" coming out of your stereo. Fans of Lacuna Coil, The Gathering and newer Theatre Of Tragedy might wanna check this one out.

P.s. Just before posting this review online, I found out in their site that The Crest disbanded in August 2003, so here's it guys, enjoy the first and only release from The Crest.