Crusades’ debut LP The Sun Is Down And The Night Is Riding In opens with an extremely ominous and slow marching drum – very reminiscent of Fucked Up’s opener from Hidden World (which may or may not be where “Crusades” came from), except the band dwell on the dark biblical passages left behind by Fucked Up. But before you know it, “Attic” has kicked into gear and it’s time to get freaky. Crusade’s obvious influences lie somewhere between The Misfits and The Copyrights, blending dark and satanic imagery with mile-a-minute pop punk hooks, yet are distinctly neither wholly.
Crusades features members of other notable Ontario, Canada bands including The Steve Adamyk Band, The Creeps, and Sedatives, giving them a welcome home on labels like Razorcake and It’s Alive (who have both collaborated on “The Sun Is Down And The Night Is Riding In”). Crusades are pushing the envelope in both their local scene and the international punk world. I’m not sure if you’ll find another band that can segue from the bona fide crust-metal “Remedy” into to the modern day power pop/punk “Rapture” to kick off a b-side as well as these guys can.
The Sun Is Down And The Night Is Riding In proves time and time again that it is possible to take dark and cathartic lyrics about religious exploration and atheism and not end up coming off like AFI. Complete with Roman Numeral 666’s (DCLXVI, for those wondering), a ouroboros Rod of Asclepius, and a handful of quotes from Friedrich Nietzsche, Glenn Danzig, Frank Sinatra and France Gall, The Sun Is Down And The Night Is Riding In is both intimidating and endearing.
-Patrick McEachnie
National Underground 
June 29th, 2012 at 11:46 am
Hello!
We at Destructure Records (France) will soon release the new 7″ of canadian punk band “Crusades” called “Palabres”.
Here is what can be said about this release:
“« Parables » is the new offering by Ottawa Crusades. After their highly acclaimed first full lenght « The Sun Is Down And The Night Is Riding In », this two songs 7″ takes the band to a new step.
For those who are still not familiar with the music of the quartet, Crusades has a strong punk rock base but draws his inspiration from various hardcore/punk subgenres.
The band develops their own musical universe with great song-writing, great sense of melody and multiple vocals.
These two tracks combine a large dose of energy and catchiness to a certain kind of melancholy and darkness.
Like in their previous releases, the band’s lyrics challenge religions with a personnal approach.
Destructure is taking care of the european pressing of this little beauty.
Take note that this release is a warm-up for a european tour planned this fall and for a new full lenght to be probably released next winter.”
The release is now on preorder and will be out early July.
Here are few links if you need more infos
Crusades
http://crusades666.tumblr.com/
Destructure
http://destructure.org/site/
Thanks for reading!
Best,
Adrien