Album Review: Evil Scarecrow – Galactic Hunt (Self Released)

Evil Scarecrow’s 3rd album has come at the right time as their popularity has reached new heights thanks to memorable live shows. Called Galactic Hunt (see what they did there?) they take their brand of storybook, tongue in cheek heavy metal & come up with one of the finest albums of their career.

The album opens with a foreboding orchestral intro before diving into Rise, an absolute barn-burner of a song. Fast-paced & heavy as anything the band has done to date with a great guitar solo at the end.

Space Dementia is another heavy track with some really evil-sounding vocals; it is surprisingly catchy though & leads perfectly in Galacticus. Opening softly & slowly before moving up a gear, it is one of the moodier songs on the album.

Crabulon comes next & is a fan-favourite already creating a wonderful dance move to go along with it. The vocals are mind-blowing here & they play off the guitar flurries really well. It’s super-catchy & has its tongue planted firmly in its cheek.

Frankingstein’s Mirror has one of my favourite Evil Scarecrow introductions exploding out of the blocks with a killer riff & rolling drums. It slows down momentarily to allow the vocals to shine before returning to its original pace. It’s a lot more haunting than anything else on the album & the length reflects that.

Book of Doom spoken-word opener will throw you off initially but persevere as it is one of the best songs on the album. Heavy with bags of rhythm & that classic Scarecrow humour thrown in, it’s a slower number up for most of the song. When it does speed up the guitars take over & the rest is history.

Dance of the Cyclops is a wonderful little circus style number utilising an accordion to great effect. It bounces along occasionally erupting into bouts of heaviness but sounds seamless. End Level Boss is a more traditional metal number that twists & turns its way towards an ending. The drumming really is exceptional here.

The riff at the opening of Flight of the Dragons really makes you stand up & take note. It’s a subtle opening before the heaviness starts with the major change being the use of female vocals in the chorus & more clean vocal singing than Evil Scarecrow ever do. Not the strongest song on the album by any means.

The album finishes off with the double header of When Moses Goes Wrong & Enter the Knightmare with the latter being inspired by the late 80’s, early 90’s kids TV adventure game show. Off the 2 final songs Enter the Knightmare is the better of the 2 with a killer guitar solo just past the halfway mark.

It’s a strong finish to a quality album.

Definitely Evil Scarecrows best work to date with more standout songs than any other album. It might lack the killer punch in some songs but the really great songs easily make up for it.