A little history on the band…Crescent Shield originally began as a side project for both Grant and DeLucie, however with the unfortunate turn of events for their main projects, this gave them the time to concentrate on the product that is Crescent Shield and their debut album The Last Of My Kind. Looking at the lineup for Crescent Shield it is not surprising what they sound like musically. Let’s just say that fans of Onward and classy American power metal should be in fact drooling over this record. When breaking down the sound, the first thing that comes to mind is the vocals and at this point it has to be said that Michael Grant has some of the best vocal chords in all of metal today (all genres included). Seriously I cannot think of another vocalist who is more underrated than this guy. While his voice and singing style are definitely a throwback to the yesteryear of metal, (Dickinson, Halford, etc) it is pretty hard to pinpoint who it is exactly he sounds like (maybe a combo of the two?). In other words there is no one who sounds quite like him. Daniel DeLucie’s chops are not exactly lacking either. His playing style can be described as energetic and melodic yet it is most effective in the sense that it never strays away from contributing to the music as a whole. You kind of get the feeling when listening to The Last Of My Kind that all of the musicians involved are very passionate about the music they are creating and are not just playing to record an album. It feels more like they are on a mission to deliver heavy metal because that is what they live, sleep, and breathe. Taken as a whole The Last Of My Kind has many highlights but none more magnificent than the seven minute title track that features some gorgeous acoustic guitars and an astounding vocal performance by Grant. I gotta admit though, singling out one track on here is pretty hard though because everything I hear is pretty much above par. While this record can be probably be labeled traditional metal, it won’t have you thinking about 1985 just yet because there are some modern arrangements to it particularly in the creative songwriting and production. The songs have a nice diversity to them, which will hold your attention and prevent you from pressing the skip button. In a nutshell this a stunning debut: high quality metal performed by first-rate passionate musicians…If you like metal, what more could you ask for??

written by Joe Grammatico

Playing time: 50.03