YMMV / Crystal Lake

• Archive Panic: They only have five studio albums, but there’s plenty of demos, splits, EPs, and singles to find and enjoy.
• Bizarro Episode: “Just Confusing” lives up to its title.
• Epic Riff: "Apollo". “WE CAME FROM NOTHING, SO TAKE IT AWAY!”
• Gateway Series: On two fronts. If you’re into Japanese or Asian metalcore or deathcore, chances are Crystal Lake, Coldrain, or crossfaith will be the bands to open that world up. On the flip side, thanks to their large domestic tours, many young metalheads in Japan are being introduced to foreign metal acts when they support/are supported by bands like Crystal Lake or crossfaith in Japan. Northlane and Erra in particular got huge boosts in popularity in Japan thanks to touring with Crystal Lake.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Crystal Lake had an easier time touring Europe than the states, so the were able to build a strong European (Germany and The UK mostly) fanbase. In 2019 they hit darn near every summer European festival and headlined Impericon’s Never Say Die festival December that year. They are also really big in China.
• Growing the Beard: Never a bad band, they really lacked that star power prior to Ryo Kinoshita joining the band.
• Narm: “Just Confusing” off Helix really feels out of place on the album. Lines like “And there's bitches when I'm horny? Only if I'm smiling 'cause I'm wilding out” come across more cringe than cool.
• Narm Charm: The cover of "Rollin’" should have been this. Between Ryo’s pronunciation, the sporadic editing on the video, the guitarists playing the same note for the whole song, and the fact they’re covering Limp Bizkit makes for narm material. But they put so much energy into the song you can’t help but bob your head and throw down in the mosh pit.
• Nightmare Fuel: "Disobey". The Last Note Nightmare of a breakdown sounds nothing like the band's usual output and everything like what Dir en grey would put out thanks to Ryo's inhuman vocals.
  • "Aeon," both the song and video. Just what the hell is communicating with Ryo?!
• Older Than They Think: Most people getting into the band they started in the mid/late 2010s due to the bands they tour with, the time they started blowing up in popularity (2017/18), and the fact they signed to Artery and Sharptone. They’ve been around since 2002.
• Signature Song: "Apollo" and/or "Aeon".