CRYSTAL VIPER announce new studio album "The Silver Key“ & European tour as headliner. 

Polish heavy metal band CRYSTAL VIPER will release their new studio album "The Silver Key" on June 28, 2024 via Listenable Records. It will be available on vinyl, compact disc, cassette and digital.

With all lyrics once again inspired by the works of the father of cosmic horror, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, the album is a natural sequel to the previous album "The Cult", released in 2021 on Listenable Records. In fact, the working title of the new album was The Cult II. However, The Silver Key is an album with an identity and character all its own, and it is undoubtedly the most intense that CRYSTAL VIPER have ever recorded. The new album is harder, faster and darker, but at the same time more epic and melodic than their previous works. In the past the band has often balanced between power metal and heavy metal, but here there is no doubt that it is pure heavy metal. The band had a very unique approach to songwriting and production that almost sounded like a homage to classic metal acts like IRON MAIDEN or JUDAS PRIEST, but aside from CRYSTAL VIPER deciding to show their love for metal culture, and incorporated several new elements into their songs that are characteristic of other subgenres. So don't be fooled by the term "female-fronted", which is usually associated with softer genres: CRYSTAL VIPER, founded and led by singer and bassist Marta Gabriel (who played rhythm guitar in the band in recent years), is just METAL, and very serious. 

"The Silver Key" was produced and mastered by heavy metal veteran Bart Gabriel and recorded and mixed by Rafal Kossakowski. The cover artwork was painted by respected Guatemalan artist Mario Lopez, who was also responsible for the cover artwork of the previous album "The Cult“. 

As before, the CD and vinyl versions of the album will contain various bonus tracks. "I guess everyone expected us to record classic heavy metal cover songs again, but we decided to do something unusual this time and recorded BATHORY and MISFITS covers," says Marta Gabriel. "Both bands had a huge influence on me, Quorthon was a great composer, and I even named my horse after him! And since our new album has both a very direct energy and horror vibes, we thought that the MISFITS song would also be a very good choice," she adds.