Knight Of The Word
Italian metalheads Crawler are back with their new album "Knight Of The Word"; which is apparently inspired by the Terry Brooks novel of the same name.
The first song up is 'Crawler' which sounds unpleasant straight away, while the vocals are ok, the music severely lacks something, and but 3 and a half minutes in, I am completely bored.
Second track 'Speed' shows a little more promise, there's a nice little bass line going on, but the whole thing isn't punchy enough, and unfortunately the first two songs set the tone for the rest of the album.
Crawler seem to know that they can create good music and solid metal tracks, but it just seems that they are complacent with their art, which is not a good thing. The songs on "Knight Of The Word" are a mix of classic heavy metal and power metal, but they haven't been mixed together well. The two genres curdle together in a wall of noise, and it's an uneasy listen.
The vocal work on the album is its saving grace, however, it's just your standard Euro Metal sounding vocal work, and every now and again you are treated to a killer guitar riff. It's a shame that Crawler's songs aren't up to scratch. If you pull the songs apart you can hear that the musicianship is there, but when it's all put together it is completely bland, and there are some very uncomfortable moments on the ears scattered amongst these 10 tracks. Crawler probably would have benefited from making their songs shorter and more concise, because the tracks do not have the backbone to support long songs. There's not enough in their music to hold your attention, and I constantly found myself wondering when the track would finish.
For the most part, "Knight Of The Word" is pretty mundane, unfortunately, it's one of those albums that you'll take nothing from, in fact, you probably won't even remember that you ever listened to it.