Progressive, powerful and passionate:
the music of SWEET CRYSTAL is universal in its appeal and eternal in its message.
The musicians that make up SWEET CRYSTAL - Marq Andrew Speck on lead vocals and keys, Bill Blatter on guitars and vocals, Steve Wieser on drums - are on the front line of the Christian rock music scene, holding high the message of the cross.
Welcome to the world of 5 Carat Rock: sweet, very sweet indeed!
And in other very Sweet news…
"5 CARAT ROCK"
IS HERE!!!!
"If you have NOT heard Sweet Crystal EPIC new EP "5 Carat Rock" YOU are missing out brothers and sisters!
I have been taken away to a place where many rock and rollers won't go...
Who says Christians can't play ROCK!"
~ Tom Slick Radio Rock 92.6 The Blitz
"This band keeps faithful to their origins - with an updated production - so if classy Pomp
with a light progressive touch is your thing, "5 Carat Rock" fulfills your musical desires.
You have here strong guitar tones & solos, lovely keyboard melodies (lots)
plus solid arrangements and dynamic vocal performances, all with a bright and up-to-date production."
~ Kristiansen Leif AOR Universe
This, our 5th release (thus the name), is our most powerful and poignant to date - which is saying a lot. Recorded and mixed by uber-producer/engineer Chuck Alkazian at Pearl Studios in Canton, MI and mastered by renowned mastering engineer Scott Hull of Masterdisk, "5 Carat Rock" starts bold out of the gate with "Even Now" complete with chanting monks (ask us what they are chanting), synth melodies and Bill's signature guitar sound.
"Come As We Are" seems destined to become a praise-and-worship standard (a first for Sweet Crystal) featuring the vocals of longtime backup singers Amy Susan Heard and Gail Engling.
"Jericho" is short and very sweet - a quick journey in more progressive music styling that compares the walls we build in our lives to those of that proverbial ill-fated city of the Old Testament.
"Can't Turn Back" is a re-visualizing of the story of our everyday modern world and the people we all come in contact with.
"When He Returns" is a 'Crystalized' version of a Bob Dylan classic southern gospel song, covered as only Sweet Crystal can.
"Nothing Here (For You To Fear)" is a remixed, remastered re-release from the movie "War Flowers" sound tract, made even sweeter by the skills of Alkazian and Hull.
"Home Sweet Home" - yup...the perennial power balled of the 70's Motley Crew returns with an even sweeter spin. Recognize the intro?
Finally, something of very historic and personal value: "Sgt Penney 1945 (Live)" is an amazing interview from one of Sweet Crystal's biggest supporters, broadcast live from the Pacific front back to a Detroit radio station, highlighting and archiving one soldier's story. Amazing and humbling.
This is "5 Carat Rock" - this is who we are and what we believe. Come, go with us...again.
Marq, Bill and Steve 2016
