{"id":104932,"date":"2025-05-15T00:00:41","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T23:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=104932"},"modified":"2025-06-03T10:06:40","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T09:06:40","slug":"ep-review-crusader-in-for-the-kill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/ep-review-crusader-in-for-the-kill\/","title":{"rendered":"CRUSADER – In For The Kill EP (2025) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

CRUSADER
In For The Kill EP<\/strong><\/span>
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\nSelf-released (2025)<\/span>
Rating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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As if the night sky has cracked open and plummeted them to earth, London, England-based rockers Crusader are born without warning. Of all the 80s throwback hard rock \/ heavy metal I\u2019ve heard, this In For The Kill<\/em> EP is right up there with the most authentic.<\/p>\n

I know little about the band as this release is fresh from the digital domain and their social media presence is non-existent, but all I can say is that if you like hard rockin\u2019 vibes such Whitesnake, Def Leppard, Scorpions, Dokken et al then you\u2019ll love this. Now, I know that a lot of modern 80s mimicry can sound about as manufactured and plastic as a well-groomed pop boy \u201cband\u201d, but Crusader have the magic ingredients to make this witchery work.<\/p>\n

Throw your scepticism out the window and prepare to become entranced because when the smouldering \u2018Wanted Man\u2019 saunters into earshot you might think you\u2019ve stepped into Whitesnake\u2019s iconic 1987<\/em> album. Vocalist Tommy Baptiste sports the David Coverdale-style of rich, soulful crooning to the point where I could smell his aftershave and see his white satin shirt collar flapping in the night air. Kyle Steven\u2019s guitar sizzles and struts with nostalgic sexual vigour, creating hot waves of electricity akin to John Sykes. In fact, every little detail is set to the latter 80s Whitesnake design, all that\u2019s missing is super model Tawny Kitaen rolling around on the floor in nothing but lingerie and beads of sweat.<\/p>\n

If you weren\u2019t there first time around then you might not fully understand the nostalgic dynamics which Crusader constructs. In fact, I\u2019m not even sure if the band members were alive in 1987, but with these three songs they really have tapped into a magical era. In spite of the mimicry, a song such as \u2018Wanted Man\u2019 works due to its authenticity, and the same goes for second song \u2018Time (Never Stops Running)\u2019 and the closing title cut.<\/p>\n

With \u2018Time (Never Stops Running)\u2019, Crusader continues to glance into the steamy windows of the late 80s, and possibly through rose-tinted glasses. After all, wouldn\u2019t it just be better if we just listened to Whitesnake? Coverdale and company\u2019s 1987<\/em> is a borderline antique now, so why do so many of us metalheads still succumb to throwback metal like Crusader? Maybe it\u2019s just down to familiarity as \u2018Time (Never Stops Running)\u2019 effortlessly runs as a mid-tempo rocker with an infectious and airy chorus that wouldn\u2019t seem out of place on a late 80s AOR album.<\/p>\n

The title track rounds this EP off in style and again it\u2019s an emphatic chorus that punches. The tempo again offers up that steamy Whitesnake groove as Scott Rae\u2019s bass runs smoothly within the cool thud of Nik K\u2019s percussion. This review comes after the 11th listen and if Crusader doesn\u2019t get a full-length out within the next year and tour I\u2019ll… er… oh, just get the bloody album out!<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CRUSADERIn For The Kill EP Self-released (2025)Rating: 8.5\/10 As if the night sky has cracked open and plummeted them to earth, London, England-based rockers Crusader are born without warning. Of all the 80s throwback hard rock \/ heavy metal I\u2019ve heard, this In For The Kill EP is right up there with the most authentic. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5919],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-crusader-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104932"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104938,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104932\/revisions\/104938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}