DAWNRIDER rises up from Portugal and "The Third Crusade" is already their 3rd album. Haven’t heard them before, although I try to keep up with what’s going on in this scene, so I was curious about this release. The simplest way to describe them is Doom Metal with heavy leanings on the Stoner Rock and surely enough it fits the basic score – long, slowly rolling tracks like the 11:11 minutes long opener ‘Demons’ instantly recall the classic vibes of ST. VITUS, CANDLEMASS mixed with simpler sounding mid-era CATHEDRAL incorporating more relaxed Stoner Rock riffs. Especially this is evident in the quite extensive use of organ on their songs, which sometimes takes away from the heaviness and puts on a ‘hippier’ colours. So as the album progresses DAWNRIDER freely rides this Stoner / Doom rollercoaster, sometimes throwing in really catchy riffs and sometimes dragging on too long and uninspiring. As an example you have a song ‘Iron Freebird’ spewing out fumes of oil soaked Biker / Stoner Rock which is followed by very politically minded ‘Absolute Power’ with rather simplistic and naive lyrics, destroying the whole tapestry and flow of the record. Such ups and downs happen rather often here times and make me to loose the sense of groove, so DAWNRIDER would benefit from more cohesive and focused style. If you cut this album short by three tracks, leaving only the first four – ‘Demons’, ‘Falling’, ‘Cry Of The Vampyre’ and ‘Iron Freebird’ – you will have a catchy sounding Stoner / Doom EP that would clock at 25 minutes and hit you in all the right places without unnecessary fillers. For more info check out the following links: www.facebook.com/dawnriderdoom, www.ragingplanet.pt