Like Prog Metal? Check out this band...

"Crusader" metal... interesting! I've heard a few other bands playing with this sort of sound, and I quite like the ideas.

It's a pity about the obsessive need to employ death metal vocals at inappropriate places... and I stand by everything I've ever said about prog metal and form. This tends to suffer from the same impression that if you go off at a sudden tangent, you can hide the fact that you lack the imagination to develop what has gone before.

The quasi-operatic vocals are nice - but tend to confuse things a little. Are the band going flat out for a sound that evokes the era of Knights Templar, or are they going for a vaguely Wagnerian approach to it? The latter seems more likely, and is somewhat lazy, IMO.

Although my comments lean hard on the negative, I do think that there are some great symphonic sounds and ideas there - but the overall standard of musicianship lets it down for me. It's one thing to have and realise great ideas, but quite another to combine those ideas into works of art.

But don't let that stop any prog metal fan from checking it out (as if anything I said would... ) - I think you were right to draw attention to this band, as there is certainly some potential there.

I'm interested to see what the prog metal fans will make of it...