Crows beckon the Unwelcome Light

Unwelcome Light may just be a short five-track EP released via their manager’s label - Telharmonium, also home to The Magic Gang’s debut EP – but it’s impressive just how accomplished and professional they sound, especially for a relatively small band still trying to attract a loyal fanbase.

Ultimately, Crows sound so accomplished purely because they know their purpose as a band - to create something heavy and unsettling while still leaning towards an acknowledgement of melody - and they serve it perfectly. From start to finish, there’s a growing sense of darkness looming over the EP, and it’s only encouraged by the metaphor-laced cries of death and desperation in lead singer James Cox’s lyrics – they’re enough to get you contemplating what he actually 'means' while scaring you shitless at the same time.

The EP’s two concluding tracks - “Whisper” and “Unwelcome Light” - are the most refined examples to date of Crows’ raucous, dark and, sometimes even threatening, sound - they’re comfortable with the fact that they make some listeners uncomfortable and that's what makes them such a promising prospect as a still seemingly up-and-coming band. Unwelcome Light is an ambitious and entirely independent debut release, and it’s one that will help Crows crawl closer and closer out of the dead-end tunnel that is unfulfilling full-time jobs and support slots - the light at the end of the tunnel is only getting brighter, no matter how unwelcome to them it may be.