{"id":31146,"date":"2013-08-04T12:33:20","date_gmt":"2013-08-04T17:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=31146"},"modified":"2014-02-08T08:37:30","modified_gmt":"2014-02-08T13:37:30","slug":"crows-the-dying-race-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2013\/crows-the-dying-race-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Crows | The Dying Race<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist\/News Editor —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Crows\"Originally released in 1991, The Dying Race was the debut album from German power metal band Crows, a very early Century Media signing and one of the most unfairly overlooked bands of that highly influential scene. Crows was a band with deep roots in the scene. They shared some band members with Angel Dust, and later both Bernd Kost and Bobby Schottkowski went on to join Sodom while vocalist Leszek Szpigiel spent time in both Mekong Delta and Scanner.<\/p>\n

Crows is a band that\u2019s not so easy to classify. You say \u201cGerman power metal\u201d and \u201c1991\u201d and obviously Helloween and Gamma Ray are going to stand out as reference points. They didn\u2019t stay neatly within the genre lines though. There\u2019s a good balance of speed and melody, as well as traces of progressive metal \u2013 particularly in the technical lead guitar work – that really go nicely with the larger power metal framework. You\u2019re just as likely to think of early Fates Warning or Fifth Angel (Szpigiel sounds a lot like Ted Pilot here) when you hear songs like \u201cToo Proud To Fight\u201d and \u201cEast of Eden.\u201d It\u2019s a very effective mix of sounds, and one that makes the album really stand out in the crowd.<\/p>\n

Whether it was bad timing, a lack of label support or just plain bad luck, Crows never caught on, and the members went their separate ways not long after The Dying Race was released. They left behind a first class power metal album though, and one that really deserves some added attention. Fans of bands like Helloween, Angel Dust and Scanner should obviously check this one out, but The Dying Race should also appeal to fans of Crimson Glory, Fates Warning, Queensryche and Fifth Angel.<\/p>\n

Divebomb\u2019s 2013 Deluxe Edition reissue of The Dying Race<\/em> puts this long out of print album back in fans\u2019 hands and offers more than a few extras in the process. The album itself has been newly remastered, and it now includes the band\u2019s 1989 4-song The Legions demo and three previously unreleased songs as bonus tracks. The bonus tracks have a much more traditional metal sound, and it\u2019s interesting to se just how much the band progressed in the short time between when the demo and The Dying Race were released. The booklet includes vintage photos and a new interview with drummer Bobby Schottkowski. It\u2019s a really well put together reissue all around, but that\u2019s par for the course with this label.<\/p>\n

Genre: Heavy Metal, Power Metal<\/p>\n

Band:
\nLeszek Szpigiel (v)
\nBernd Kost (g)
\nJochen Kalpein (g)
\nFrank Bankowski (b)
\nBobby Schottkowski (d)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tThe Frantic Factor
\n2.\tToo Proud To Fight
\n3.\tWe Are the Storm
\n4.\tFour
\n5.\tEast of Eden
\n6.\tChange the Border
\n7.\tInsanity Defense
\n8.\tThe Dying Race
\n9.\t4
\n10.\tHungry
\n11.\tMedusa
\n12.\tThe Legions
\n13.\tBack to Back
\n14.\tCover of Ruin
\n15.\tAngel Cry<\/p>\n

Label: Divebomb Records<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 9\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – Senior Columnist\/News Editor — Originally released in 1991, The Dying Race was the debut album from German power metal band Crows, a very early Century Media signing and one of the […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":31147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8704],"tags":[336,923,2491,1097,334],"class_list":{"0":"post-31146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2013","8":"tag-cd","9":"tag-divebomb-records","10":"tag-heavy-metal","11":"tag-power-metal","12":"tag-review"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}