The oldest traces of the Belgian band Crimson Falls date back to spring 2002, when Kristof (guitar), Ringo (guitar) and Sigi (drum) started rehearsing together. Ringo and Sigi had already been playing together in Outrage and Reller, two hardcore bands, while Kristof had a past in the metalcore bands Unbound NC and Amain. With this line-up they composed the first Crimson Falls’ songs while looking for a suitable singer and bass player to make the band complete. In October 2002 both were found in Filip (vocals) and Maarten (bass).

After the first couple of shows it became clear that not everyone in the band had the same view on the musical direction. Vocalist Filip didn’t feel comfortable with the more melodic death metal-styled music the rest of the band was heading for, so both sides agreed that going their own separate way was the best option. After this, the band kept on rehearsing and writing new songs as a foursome. After 8 long months, a new singer was found in former Legion singer Wim Jacobs. Wim had the same musical background and musical preferences as the other Crimson Falls members.

The music that Crimson Falls play is very varied, they have influences from different subgenres like Swedish death metal, US death metal and metalcore.

The production of ‘Ruins 2k5’ suits the music very well. This album was recorded in the studio where bands like Liar and Lengh’tche also recorded their albums and the album was mastered by Ziggy, who used to work with bands like Ill-Disposed, Aborted and Hatesphere.

On the promotional flyer the band states that the lyrics are important to them. They don’t just write down a couple of words that rhyme in some way, but they really want to have some depth. Some songs are about personal emotions and other songs are about present day subjects. “Book Of Memories” for instance is about a new social phenomenon: ‘mobbing’, which stands for harassments and violations at work. The events that are mentioned in “Book Of Memories” are based on a true story. So as you can see Crimson Falls don’t just deal with bullshit lyrics.

For more information about the band and their debut ‘Ruins 2k5’, you can go to their website. Now let’s hope for these Belgians that they find a good label soon. I think they deserve it!