Review Summary: A relentless blast of Atheistic punk. Recommended if you don't like Jesus.
While it’s easy to write off what most punk bands these days have to say as half baked brain queefs and idealistic nonsense, Crusades take that perceived lack of depth and absolutely crush it on
Perhaps You Deliver This Judgement With Greater Fear Than I Receive It. Crusades is a band that wants to make sure you know every ounce of perceived evil in religion that they can find, and even if you don’t wholeheartedly agree with their philosophy, it’s hard to argue that the lyrics themselves aren’t deep and often capable of thought provoking phrases. Lines like “Armspan wide and tendrils tried, Yet none could strangle the tyranny of will” from the second track of the album ‘The Torchbearer’ hint towards the personal suffocation organized religion can inflict upon the population, and being a concept record about 16th century Giordano Bruno (A man executed for his contrarian views) the rest of the album delivers more anti-religious condemnations, and while it does occasionally lapse so far into it’s own pretension that it gets ridiculous, it’s written consistently enough and with so much conviction that the rougher parts generally get glossed over.
Whereas the bands debut was a pretty straightforward hardcore/pop-punk record,
Perhaps You Deliver… is a much more fleshed out affair. Taking cues from mid era AFI and more melodic hardcore bands, the songs here occasionally break free of the constant up-tempo, non-stop hookfest that bands like Crusades tend to gravitate towards. “The Transport of Intrepid Souls” and “The Heroic Frenzies” mix slow burning build ups with friendly sing a long choruses, while “Exitus” is a huge, epic closer that veers more towards the sludge metal spectrum of things for most of its run. However, the band still finds itself drifting too often into the same sound, and even with decently crisp production, a lot of the album becomes homogeneous. It’s never terrible or insulting, but you still get that tingling sense of “What song am I listening to?” even after a few listens that’s fairly frustrating. However, all in all Crusades have made a worthy entry into the annals of intelligent punk music, and
Perhaps You Deliver… is a good starting point for this band to really blossom into something special. Just don’t expect them to be be supporting Underoath on their reunion tour.
