A MURDER OF CROWS

After their decent debut album, this American/Austrian cooperation releases their second disc with 'A Murder of Crows'. Buddy Lackey, revealed his true identity and started Dead Soul Tribe after his previous band Psychotic Waltz stopped existence. The reborn Devon Graves - renown for his hard work - went on with the same musical style but took on a more dark approach to the genre.

While their self titled debut was a decent work of dark brooding metal, their second effort was an example of how good metal, atmosphere, poetry and song structures can be mixed. Combining all these disciplines without losing sight of the big picture is a feat worth mentioning and is not something a lot of people can do. The best thing about this recording however is the sheer genius of how well the flute has been combined with all these elements.

I saw this band live last year and though they had to put up with a laughable stage size, they really stole the show. Especially the songs from 'A Murder of Crows' made up for a lot of appreciation from the crowd who were obviously not really familiar with their material.

Graves is an enigmatic personality who deserves to be recognised for his part in progressive metal history.