• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

After getting thoroughly floored by 2003's "Suffer Our Pleasures", this Tarot album was a default choice. And upon listening to most of their discography recently, I've often wondered that if only Tarot knew how to write good guitar solos, would they be the best damn heavy metal band of the present time. But unfortunately their solos are usually very weak and they always have a few tracks on each album that seem to be there just to increase the CD playtime.

With that in mind, here's "Crows Fly Back" – Tarot's seventh long player. Not a whole lot of changes in the quintet who deliver more of their tried and tested (yet strangely unique) brand of riff-infested melodic heavy metal. Starting off with the title track, Tarot dive straight in to the meat of the album with a monstrous opener which would create the impression that it is the best on the bill here. But no, it only gets better. Through big sing-alongs like "Traitor" and "Ashes To The Stars" the band shows hardly a sign of them running out of steam despite 20 years of doing this. The band then completely unleashes itself upon the listener with the two tracks right in the middle with "Before The Skies Come Down" and "Tides". The former being a perfect example of the rocking riff-mongers that Tarot can be, while "Tides" gives us with a breather by slowing things down and delivering a killer ballad. The remainder of the album shines again when we get to "Howl" – another track which I presume would be a live favourite.

If an album gives you this much of a licking, its weaker moments are more than forgivable, as is usually the case with Tarot. Despite their shortcomings here and there, Tarot would definitely be amongst the 3 best heavy metal bands in the world at the moment. And this album helps maintain that contention. Overall though, "Suffer Our Pleasures" would be a better Tarot album than this one, but the best tracks here are better than the best there. So if you claim to have even a shred of metal in you, "Crows Fly Back" is a must.