After a lot of line-up changes in the early days of the Hungarian band Ad Astra, they have a steady line-up for about 5 years now and this resulted in a couple of demos and their first full-length album. In the beginning they only used Hungarian lyrics, but they now have switched to English vocals. With Crust Of Ego they present us a couple of new songs, a couple of translated old ones and a cover of U2’s 'Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me’.
The album starts with the title track of their last demo, No Contact, and that immediately sets the right atmosphere. ‘No Contact’ is a fast, progressive song, which musically does remind a bit of Dream Theater. This track is originally with Hungarian lyrics and the band has done a great job with the English lyrics. The whole song sounds just as if it’s made this way. There is not one moment where the English text is a bit misplaced or something, it just fits.
Furthermore the music is very strong and convincing. With the first seven tracks they truly convince that they can write great music and also the U2-cover is played in an impressive way. For those who are curious about this band: you can check three songs out on their MySpace, which are really representative for the rest of the record. Enjoy!
02. Stranger Faces
03. Crust Of Ego
04. One Minute Silence
05. Waves
06. 2.7 K
07. The Otherself
08. Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me (U2-cover)
Csaba Morvai – Lead Vocals
Márton Kliment – Drums
Csaba Erdélyi – Bass
Márk Spala – Guitars