Crystal Planet is the seventh studio album by the guitarist Joe Satriani, released on March 3, 1998, by Epic Records.[2] It was his first album to be released on Epic, whereas his previous six albums were released by Relativity Records. Crystal Planet reached No. 50 on the U.S. Billboard 200[3] and remained on that chart for eight weeks,[4] as well as reaching the top 100 in five other countries.[5] "Ceremony" was released as a single, reaching No. 28 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart[3] and featuring Satriani's first recorded use of a seven-string guitar, namely the Ibanez Universe. "A Train of Angels" was nominated for Best Rock Instrumental Performance at the 1999 Grammy Awards,[6] Satriani's ninth such nomination.
Crystal Planet has been reissued twice. The first was on June 16, 2008, as part of the Original Album Classics box set,[7] and most recently as part of The Complete Studio Recordings, released on April 22, 2014, by Legacy Recordings; this is a box set compilation containing remastered editions of every Satriani studio album from 1986 to 2013.[8]
Stephen Thomas Erlewine at AllMusic awarded Crystal Planet four stars out five, calling it "an instrumental record with a difference" and Satriani's "finest all-instrumental effort since Surfing With the Alien". He praised Satriani for "taking more chances than ever" and further developing his technique, saying that it reaches "new, uncharted waters".[2]
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