Archive for the ‘1997’ Category
Crows – The Dying Race
Here’s another band that I’m sure most people haven’t heard of. They only did this one album and it was one of the first Century Media Records releases in 1991. I happened upon this when I was in Los Angeles in 1997. I had my own small time online CD and t-shirt business (Acacia Music) which was mainly supplied by Century Media and Metal Blade Records. I went out there on a buying trip to meet and talk to my sales reps. It was pretty cool that both companies offered me a position out there and I was certainly considering taking one of them and moving out there from Virginia. Unfortunately family issues arose and I needed to stay put for a while. But that’s neither here nor there.
While perusing the Century Media warehouse and filling up a shopping cart full of CDs, I saw Crows’ The Dying Race sitting on a shelf all by itself. I had never heard of them and confirmed with my rep that it was for sale and not just something someone left there. When he was tallying up my stash, the Crows CD didn’t show up in his inventory so he just gave it to me. I didn’t get a chance to hear until after I got back from California, but man am I glad I picked it up. This is some good stuff. Their main lyrical theme seems to heavly lean on American Indian culture and the poor treatment of them.
Members of this band were also in Scanner, Angel Dust, Mekong Delta and Sodom. Musically it’s sort of a NWOBHM style with great vocal melodies. This has been long out of print and I wanted to share it. Enjoy!
Here’s on of their slower tunes:
Skullview – Legends of Valor (1997)
A song from this was on one of the many compilation tapes that Kelz sent me over the years. It was the song Blood on 
the Blade from Skullview‘s debut CD. I bought this CD and the followup and have enjoyed them both over the years but there was always something missing and I still can’t put my fingers on it. They vocals were fine, the riffs were fine…these guys were a good traditional American metal band but something always seemed to be lacking. I always thought the drummer was a bit boring and a tad sloppy. I don’t know. But nonetheless, this album is certainly worth putting ears to a few times.
They did play one of the Keep It True fests and I am sure some of the other US metal festivals. I used to correspond with the guitarist quite a bit in the days of the old usenet metal forums. Great dude, fine guitarist. Wonder what he’s up to these days?
I guess I could compare them to Armored Saint and Early Jag Panzer…a little anyway.
You know as I sit here and listen to this album again, I blame it on the drummer. He definitely had some meter problems which translated to the rest of the band.
Custard? WTF? There is a band named Custard?
Yep. Kelz made for me a compilation tape around 1997 that had some cool stuffs on it like Custard, Tension, 
Skullview(!) and some other stuff that escapes me right now. I listened to that tape all the friggin’ time until I got a car in 2000 that didn’t have a cassette player. So I saw that Sentinel Steel Records had Kingdoms of Your Life on CD and picked it up promptly. He always has cool stuff and I recommend you checking it out if you’re even mildly into Power Metal.
Custard hails from Germany and are apparently still together but I am pretty suer that this CD is out of print, that’s why I am posting it here. Fading Memories is the only song I can’t get into. This is good straight up power metal. The singer’s range isn’t that great but it’s very listenable. Failed Mission is easily my favorite. They have little bit of Maiden, Helloween, Accept etc in their sound.
I never bothered to check out their other albums, likely out of fear of disappointment.
On a scale of 1-5, this gets an easy 3.75.
Enjoy it!
The Metal Files 
You must be logged in to post a comment.