Evil Scarecrow: Galactic Hunt

Jokey metallers show off their serious chops

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Space might be home to the Restaurant At The End Of The Universe but very few of us have ever paid it a visit.

Luckily this rabble of painted wallies have not only explored the stars but returned to Earth with tales of derring-do to spread among the masses. Evil Scarecrow’s third effort is everything you would expect from the sort-of-parody metallers: fun. But don’t go thinking it’s some jokey mess of off-key wailing and misjudged solos – this bloody six-piece are masters of their craft and have created just under an hour of no-nonsense heavy metal mayhem.

OK, so there might be a bit of nonsense, but who wants to listen to songs about feelings all the time? We want to hear about robots having their way with crustaceans in Crabulon, losing a precious library book in the grimace- and claw-inducing Book Of Doom, or an instructional guide to building a body in Frankingstein’s Mirror – with a chorus destined to be screamed in venues throughout the solar system. Sonically there are occasional nods to Cradle Of Filth, but with serious technical ability and solos thrown in – and a ton of sci-fi noises borrowed from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. With so many bands claiming ‘metulz is serious business’, Evil Scarecrow are claiming the galaxy with their headbanging grooves… about aliens and cyclops.

Via Pledgemusic

Luke Morton joined Metal Hammer as Online Editor in 2014, having previously worked as News Editor at popular (but now sadly defunct) alternative lifestyle magazine, Front. As well as helming the Metal Hammer website for the four years that followed, Luke also helped relaunch the Metal Hammer podcast in early 2018, producing, scripting and presenting the relaunched show during its early days. He also wrote regular features for the magazine, including a 2018 cover feature for his very favourite band in the world, Slipknot, discussing their turbulent 2008 album, All Hope Is Gone.