Review by ZeroSymbolic7188 for Manilla Road - Crystal Logic (1983)
Addressing the Elephant in the room: Yes Mark Shelton souds like Skeletor. Now let me tell you why that's actually great.
Crystal Logic is kind of a relic of a world that doesn't really exist anymore, a world that being born in 1988, I only saw the very tale end of, but I did see it, and I have tremendous nostalgia for it. Clear your mind and I will try my best to put you there;
The internet had not been invented yet, and there were no cellphones. I promise this is not a boomer rant, just stay with me a minute. No internet, no cellphones. Television had 3 channels, and cartoons were shown on Saturday mornings. Children and Teenagers entertained themselves with pinball, arcades, comic books, and maybe an Atari 2600. See I grew up in the 90s but I grew up dirt poor in Nebraska in the 90s. My toys and entertainment were from the 70's and early 80's just like this album is. In 1983 the Nintendo Entertainment Sytem was not even out yet in the United States. I will also tack-on that Manilla Road are from Witchita Kansas. I grew up on the Nebraska-Kansas, Line; as in walking distance to a dirt road such that the driver was in Nebraska and the passenger was in Kansas. There is a certain aura I can't explain better than saying "I knew this band was from Kansas before I could confirm it."
Crystal Logic in addition to being just great, straight forward, no-frills, ass-kicking, pure, 100% distilled Heavy Metal is also a time machine. Not nostalgia-nostalgia is longing to be in a certain time and place. Crystal Logic doesn't leave you longing, it puts you right the fuck there. It's a time machine. It is an album that puts a sonic landscape and words to those crude atari and early arcade graphics. The fact that Mark Shelton sounds like a comic book or Saturday morning cartoon character goes with their whole deal. Ronnie James Dio, Bruce Dickenson, or Robert Halford singing on this would not fit. You need Mark "The Shark" Shelton-nobody could do it better.
Crystal Logic is D&D, old-school video games, comic, books, trans-ams, camaros, and straight down the middle, no bullshit metal. It's fun, it's got riffs, it's a journey. The fact that this band is from Witchita Kansas 1983, and you even know who the fuck they are is a testament to how good this shit it.
Journey to "Necropolis" learn the secrets and power of "Crystal Logic", try to solve "The Riddle Master", and enjoy everything else this has to offer. If you do so while drinking a Pepsi and playing Q-Bert next to a muscle car in your garage all the better. That's what this album is about.