Cresent
Self Titled EP
6.7
Finally, some fresh blood coming our way from North Carolina that doesn’t spill from the chalice of medio-core. Then again how fresh can an aspiring power metal band sound while plunging forth into another genre of metal that also has very little wiggle room and not very many vacancies? Well, the simple truth is any band looking to carve their name into the monument o’ metal in this day in age, regardless of the genre/sub-genre, is looking at a seemingly and never ending uphill battle to not only retain some level of relevancy, but also to create songs that people will enjoy when they hear them. Seems simple enough to a certain extent, but in reality we know very well as listeners how difficult it can be. Nevertheless, as long as musicians out there keep making recordings, we’ll be right here to dissect them and give you our honest take on them, regardless of how many times we’ve heard these recordings already.
What we have here is straight up Matt Barlow-era Iced Earth worship, and while it’s done fairly well, there is absolutely no way around that comparison. The vocals are there, for the most part, with everything from lower toned grit during some of the verse sections to the high end screaming and multi-track layering going on during these sing along choruses. The riffs are plentiful with trickety triplets galore teamed up with the ideal amount of melodic licks that serve the vocals well as there is a lot of singing that mimics these guitar melodies. The drumming is concrete enough with the optimum amount of double kicking and just enough flash to be considered a step up from middle-of-the-road. Yep, that’s the perfect blueprint for the perfect power metal outfit. Now the question is will this music match up to the competition and raise some eyebrows among power/prog lovers within the metal community? I just don't know, to be completely honest. I love Barlow-era Iced Earth, but I’m not sure I really need another Horror Show in my collection. Again the simple truth says that the potential certainly lies within, as it does with so many bands out there these days, but it will be very important for this band to find out who they are and not try and clone what already has been. The vocals have the most potential to make that happen (or not happen) for this band, and with that said I would like to see the vocalist try and break away from sounding so much like someone who is/was already out there and maybe combine a couple of other styles into his arsenal, and if not a couple different styles then maybe at least from a couple other singers within the genre. Bottom line is the music is good enough to build on, but the singer will make or break this band in my opinion.
When all is said and done I don’t see Crescent going away any time soon and I strongly believe they’ll be heard from again. And I’m of the opinion that when we do hear from them again they will have improved not only as musicians but as songwriters as well. They have produced a solid enough six song, self-titled EP that while not anything we haven’t heard before is undoubtedly something they should be proud of and is a great stepping stone for the band. The production is a notch above average at best but it’s evident there was some patching going on here and there that is very noticeable in some places. Regardless, the music on this self-titled release is written and played well enough that I have no choice but to recommend Cresent to any and all power/prog lovers. Three of the six songs can be heard at their site, and I encourage fans of the genre to go there and give them a listen.
