Polish hard rock veterans Kruk opened a lot of eyes with their 2011 release It Will Not Come Back, and they are back once again with another solid set of classic rock songs in the form of Be 3. Now, initially I figured that Be 3 was a reference to the amount of Hammond B-3 that keyboard player Michat Kurys would be contributing to the album, but essentially (according to the band) the title has more to do with how satisfied they are with their career and their willingness to keep on plugging away as they have been doing. Well OK then!
In case you are wondering, yes, there is plenty of Hammond B-3 organ on Be 3, which is no surprise given that some of Kruk's main influences are Deep Purple and Uriah Heep, along with Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. The songs range from crunchy hard rockers ("Master Blaster" and "Calling You") to more melodic pop fare ("At the Desert" and "Steal Your Heart"), both if which the band are quite good at. It's the more rocking numbers however that work the best, as their style of heavy guitars and powerful keyboards, along with soaring vocals, just come across as very powerful and convincing. "Burnin' Inside" has that Deep Purple/Uriah Heep/Europe feel, with crisp instrumentation and catchy melodies, plus some excellent guitar work from Piotr Brzychcy, who obviously has been influenced by Ritchie Blackmore. Rich Hammond organ tones permeate the hook laden "Miss Sometimes", and both "Rising Anger" and "It's Gone" are memorable, fist pumping hard rock anthems. Those who appreciate catchy melodic rock & AOR will love the addicting "On the Station", and lead vocalist Tomasz Wiśniewski (who is right on the money throughout this album) does a truly remarkable job on their rendition of Purple's legendary "Child in Time", as the band go for a more laid back, jazzy tone, allowing for the singer to deliver some gentle crooning that eventually leads to the classic screams.
Metal Mind has included a few bonus cuts on this digipack edition, which are instrumental & Polish language takes on some of the tunes, which will be of interest to the die hard fans but most can probably skip over. Overall Be 3 is another solid slice of melodic hard rock for anyone into classic sounds, and hopefully with this release Kruk can get some exposure outside of their native Poland.
Track Listing
1) Rising Anger
2) Steal Your Heart
3) Master Blaster
4) At the Desert
5) Calling You
6) Burnin' Inside
7) Miss Sometimes
8) It's Gone
9) On the Station
10) Child in Time
Bonus Tracks
11) Rising Anger (instrumental take)
12) Burnin' Inside (instrumental take)
13) Gdyby upadl swiat
14) Jestem Bogiem
15) Jak glaz
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