Band:	Kingcrow
Album:	Insider
Style:	Progressive metal
Release date:	April 09, 2003
A review by:	Jeff

01. Friendship
02. The Project
03. Temptation
04. Never Say Die
05. Eyes Of A Betrayer
06. Into The Cell
07. Lies
08. The Killing Hand
09. Stardust
10. Save Me
11. Finale

Kingcrow is a young band from Italy and "Insider" is their 2nd album after "Something Unknown" [2001] and a 3 tracks promo "Matzmariels" [2003]. If I can do a comparison with a band to describe their music I just will say Queensryche or Rush. You can easily understand that we are in presence of a true Progressive Heavy metal band. And believe me this album will certainly be a great good surprise for the aficionados of this kind of music.


"Insider" like a well-known album of Queensryche [Operation: Mindcrime] is a concept album. The story of the album talk about the friendship of two guys which will be disturbed by a strange and dangerous discovery of one of them? And this story is good; the lyrics are very well writing and the concept of the cd is very good too. With some dialogues [between each tracks], between all the characters of the story it's very easy to be totally in the story.

The music of "Kingcrow" is very good too, for those who like 80'/90' sound, you can't have any problems with that production. No doubt that the band is really inspired by all the Heavy/Prog masters of this years. And it's a very good thing to have again this excellent feeling that some of us certainly had in their youth while listening this kind of music.
The songs of "Insider" can be pure Heavy/Prog songs but also ballads. At the end this album is very varied but the thing which is sure is the fact that all the songs are very well played by the guys. Good solo, good riffs good bass and drums line and a very good voice for the singer? Nothing to say?

The production is certainly the only problem for that cd. The sound is not bad but some parts in the music sound a little "old" for me. The drum for example have this "clean" sound of the 80' and not a really big sound that we can have today. It's certainly wanted by the band but I'm not sure that is a really good thing. I'm sure that it's possible to do Prog like in the 90' with the sound of today.
At the opposite, the artwork and the layout are very good. A lot of great draws [classics like with the excellent draw of the band or like comic with the cover], all the lyrics and the story are in the booklet too? A very good job?


This 2nd album of Kingcrow is a real good surprise and for sure I will recommend it to all the fans of Prog Metal, to all the fans of good music. This is not perfect maybe, but this is more than correct. For sure Kingcrow is a really good band, and I'm sure that will a better production their next albums could be this time more than a surprise.
Do you like Prog Metal? Yes ? Then ok try the Italian band Kingcrow through their new album "Insider". I'm sure that you'll agree with me to say that this band is more than promising.