Metal Underground.com

When the band sticks to making actual music, Slik Helvetika's "Krypt Kicker 5" is a decent chunk of '80s-influenced fun. Unfortunately, a good chunk of this disc's 20-minutes and change is made up of silly spoken-word interludes.

On the positive side, singer/guitarist Mikhall Myers excels in both arenas, with shrieking vocals on "Crack The Sky" and, to a lesser extent, "Bastard" that are quite reminiscent of Rob Halford. The ax-work is also quite excellent, with both the riff and solo providing evidence that Myers has listened to plenty of Van Halen. There's also an excellent guitar break in the Motley Crue-esque "You & Me" that's worth mentioning.

The disc's final track, "Pray For The Future" is the weakest of the actual songs (other than a 30-second snippet of "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" re-titled "Drizzle" here) feeling a bit one-dimensional. That said, this EP's worst problem is definitely the spoken-word interludes. Yeah, I guess it's cool that the only thing the guy wants to eat in "Fine Dining" is "tasty fucking metal," but stuff like "Tehwas' Son" and especially "The Good Pope" is pretty dopey.

For all that, I'd still recommend Slik Helvetika's "Krypt Kicker 5" to fans of the '80s. Sure, four of the nine tracks are filler, but the rest are — to quote "Fine Dining" — "tasty fucking metal."