A Recommended Crusade

Occasionally people will recommend some music to me. It usually doesn't turn out well. I'm pretty particular in what I like and don't like, and while I appreciate the effort, these people typically don't really understand my tastes. The blogger community, however, usually makes some solid recommendations. You dudes know your shit. I get a charge when a fellow blogger writes about record that I had never heard of, and ends up turning me on to a great new band. Marcus did it with The Rule Of Nines in my last post, Dobek pushed me to check out Urban Waste, and this time around Mark introduced me to one of the biggest surprises of the year...Crusades.

Honestly, I would have never thought to check out Crusades based on the album cover. It certainly gives the feel of some Norwegian Black Metal band,or maybe something with a crust punk feel, like Tragedy. I'm generally not interested in either of these styles, and I wouldn't have given this band a second look. But from Mark's post, he described them as more of a Pop Punk band. Now, I generally couldn't give two shits about Pop Punk either, but this band seemed to have a strong stance against religion, so I thought that there was a glimmer of hope. If there is something I can get behind, it is a band spitting in the face of god.

Now I wouldn't classify Crusades as Pop Punk. When I think of that label, I think of Blink 182 and Green Day. No thanks...pass. No, Crusades would fall more in line with the melodic punk of the early 90's...a good hard edge, but with some great hooks and a sing along chorus. In fact the band really reminds me of a great, often overlooked band called Sticks and Stones.

Razorcake Records was the only place that I could find the red colored vinyl pressing. Great looking colored vinyl with a gatefold cover which includes the lyrics and various quotes against organized religion. This album could end up in my Top 5 for the year. So good.