CROW’S FLIGHT – The Dark Horizon (2025) *HQ*
Hailing from Finland, CROW’S FLIGHT is a melodic metal / hard rock band with a sound blending the spirit of 80s melodic metal with a modern edge. The quintet have an excellent new new album out tomorrow called ”The Dark Horizon” which clocks in at around forty-seven minutes long and is the band’s third full length release.
This is the band’s third album, and you can hear all members are experienced guys and musicians with solid formation, as happens with all Scandinavian performers. Each song into ”The Dark Horizon” is crafted with heart and soul, featuring catchy melodies and rich musical landscapes. The good thing with CROW’S FLIGHT is their classic sound, traditional but updated, mixing the melody of metal with hard rock grooves.
Kicking the album into gear ‘Into the Night’; this is a high energy melodic metallic song with fantastic clear vocals and a catchy chorus. Here singer Markuu Kuikka reminds me of Jeff Scott Soto. This is a dynamic fast based track with killer refrain, the added keyboards give the song its melodic edges.
Seriously, CROW’S FLIGHT is an awesome band, at places recalling House Of Lords, Talisman, at others Jorn Lande, 1990’s Queensryche, etc… all good. Just check the video below.
The stomping ‘Conqueror’ is a fun catchy hard rocker with fantastic, gritted vocals from Markku. He has solid fab voice here, the song is quite bouncing, and vocally here he comes over in the vein of Kip Winger, Soto, and James Christian from House Of Lords, with powerful raspy high powered gutsy vocals. The music is quite technical and melodic with a slight Queensrÿche vibe, the keyboard give the song an almost symphonic vibe to this otherwise pristine rocker.
‘Like a Reaper’ is another catchy as fuck song with killer chorus, the keyboards give the track its melodic charms, its upbeat and very catchy, would make a good track for the label to send out to the radio Markku’s voice soars quite high on this one, superb track with the energy of say Talisman.
The guitar heavy stomping ‘Fight of Time’ is next and again has a Talisman feel. This an excellent catchy song that is anthemic melodic / AOR based with catchy chorus coupled with shit-hot musicianship. ‘From the Darkness’ is another killer catchy song with a power metal anthemic edge. This is my overall favourite track, it has a slight Whitesnake feel in parts, and Markku kills it vocally, where as they keyboards give the song its slightly symphonic metal vibe, meanwhile guitarists Emo Hanhissalo and Marko Vehmanen are all over this song played with tons of energy, this is a massively catchy big song.
‘The Witch’ mix heavy with hard, only this one musically is a little more complex, it’s melodic power metal with superb musicianship, and again towering vocals from Markku. The bombastic and elaborated ‘Silent Whispers’ is another heavier song, yet it flows with melodic textures. I love the way the music gets faster on this song with Markku in fine voice, he kills it on this song, this is one of my favourite songs on the album, so much going here, lots of vibrant energy, kinda reminds me of the band Fair Warning.
‘Unspoken Words’ is a deep melodic acoustic ballad, the lyrics are fantastic and to start with the song has a similar feeling to the Whitesnake song ‘Sailing Ships’, but then as it builds up there is a melodic Winger feel coming again – this is another album highlight with its sensational, massive vocals coupled with Yngwie Malmsteen style guitar riffs.
‘Walls of Oblivion’ is a faster paced heavier melodic power metaller with killer powerful vocals. The album ends with the atmospheric ‘Road to Madness’, this is melodic with stomping drum beats and groove. The guitar work is crisp and fast, this whole song has a Rhapsody texture out with a slight symphonic edge, actually this reminds me a lot of the band Millenium / Jorn, of you remember them , good solid catchy powerful metal rocker with killer intense guitar wizardry. I must also mention Jussi Lehto’s solid bass playing here which is fantastic.
‘The Dark Horizon’ is a sensational album, all the songs rock hard and the production is powerful and clear.
Fans of Jeff Scott Soto solo and with Talisman, Jorn Lande, 1990’s Queensryche, House Of Lords, etc need to hear CROW’S FLIGHT.
HIGHLY Recommended
01 – Into The Night
02 – Conqueror
03 – Like a Reaper
04 – Fight of Time
05 – From the Darkness
06 – The Witch
07 – Silent Whispers
08 – Unspoken Words
09 – Walls of Oblivion
10 – Road to Madness
Markku Kuikka – vocals
Erno Hanhisalo – guitars
Tom Rask – drums
Marko Vehmanen – guitars
Jussi ”Leba” Lehto – bass
Pre order:
roughtrade.com/product/crows-flight/the-dark-horizon
