Category: Crow

This record only came out in 1995, after Crow had disbanded for the first time; the songs are actually old recordings from 1988 and 1989. Maybe it is only due to the better and more brutal recording quality but to me this is the record where Crow started to change their style somewhat, away from d-beat to more metallic hardcore of their second incarnation. Some of the music is not yet that different from Who Killled Dove, Last Chaos or Eye Of The Thrash Guerilla, in fact the songs on the B-Side are rerecorded versions of songs off Last Chaos. What stands out are the two songs on the A-Side: the opener The End [sic!] is a monster of almost 6 minutes with singer Crow paying homage to Discharge’s infamous Grave New World 12“ with high pitched falsetto singing. Immediately afterwards Crow veer into blast beat territory with the 58 second monster Born To Die. Brutal as fuck!

Crow killed dove. For sure.

Last Chaos, the mighty Crow’s debut album, released in 1987. Musically the songs are still very clearly from Crow’s early phase: very simple, brutal, dark, crusty, abrasive and aggressive. The production is also very raw and lo-fi, very fitting for such a brutal and raw release.
This version here is a recent bootleg, for which the songs were cut from a pretty worn out original. So expect a lot of cracks, pops and additional distortion.

Give up all hope!

I guess I’ll have a hard time describing this LP without sounding like a pathetic fanboy, but this album IS that good: evil, metallic, brutally powerful, dark and atmospheric. Even the slower parts of this album are just as full of incredible tension and power. A number of songs are re-recorded versions off previous releases. God Of Chaos, Give Up All Hope and A Door To An End are pretty similar to the older versions (though Give Up All Hope gained LOTS of power), while Anarchy, Chaos, Destruction is almost an entirely new (and also far more powerful) song when compared to the original. It also gained two minutes of feedback in the beginning to really kick off the album, hehe.

Metal Machine Music, anyone?

Now this is a truly heavy release by the masters of hardcore darkness! From the doves carrying Little Boys to the Genbaku Dome to the actual music, this 12“ is dark and evil as fuck. The title track Beating Of The Wings Of Destruction is an almost 7 minute monster of slow, dark, metallic hardcore, the 4 songs on side b also merge into one 7 minute track of high speed chaos (one is a re-recording of Last Chaos). Originally released in 2007 with a cover, this picture 12“ is the 2010 licensed pressing on Prank.

This is a masterpiece, you hear me?

Since I’m not rich, this is only the recent bootleg of Crow’s first 7“. A lot rawer, more primitive and more direct than their later output, but already with the same darkness and despair.
I had already posted these songs on this bootleg compilation, but the 7“ comes in the original artwork with fold-out poster.

Yeah, I know that I recycled that lame joke about not being rich.

Neurotic Organisation was released in 2001; its three Crow originals are typical later-era Crow tracks: dark, fast, heavy, metallic, sometimes somewhat “melodic”. They also recorded “Sanctuary” by Amebix, reworking it in their own fast-paced style.

This way, please!

I can’t help it, I’m a huge Crow fan. I just love their mixture of dark, metallic melodies, apocalyptic hardcore and utter brutality. The only acceptable criticism of 1998’s 終焉の扉 12″ is that it’s too fucking short! But hell, if you want this kind of noise assault on a full-length, there’s always “Bloody Tear” (even with a re-recorded version of this ep’s title track).

Get it, fucker!

Crow released their 7″ “Kontonshin” (God of Chaos) in 1998. It’s a far cry from the earlier material of theirs I have already posted. It is still dark, a lot tighter, more brutal and less simple d-beat – now they even play intros and stuff! You can hear a black metal influence in the harmonies of the title track, which was later rerecorded for their album “Bloody Tear”.

Don’t worry: this is still Japan, not Norway!