Crusader is a Belgian coverband by origin. From 1996 until the summer of 1999, they took you for a hard, yet realistic ride down the old and the contemporary metal memory lane. Bass player Mark Theunssens and singer David Walgrave, however, dreamed of creating their own heavy metal songs. This dream came true thanks to the summoning of new guitarist Filip Lasseel. After a quest of a few months, new drummer Jan Moerman and second guitar player Joost Vlasschaert were drafted for the Crusade. Jan, Joost and Filip had already played together in a band called "Bitter Carnival". The most important and most active songwriter in the band is Filip. He still possesses the art of calling forth striking melodies from his guitar. These are sometimes mixed with a tuneful medieval strain, but they can also turn out to be piercing metal riffs that make your heart beat twice as fast. Still, the magic spell is only complete once the song has been processed by the whole band and made a true Crusader song. Although the band members often think from various influences and every song sounds differently, Crusader songs are highly recognisable. Crusader will not label its work differently than "heavy metal". Nevertheless, "non-metalheads" have already shown their appreciation as well. The band is especially influenced by heavy metal bands from the eighties, but their own, often modern stamp cannot be denied. In May 2000, Crusader went to the Dyprins Digital Studios. Eight songs were selected from the recordings and their debut CD "This Mortal Flesh" was a fact. In November 2000, drummer Jan Moerman was replaced by Dries Deturck. Early 2002, one of the new songs was picked for the "Tribute to Overdrive" album (the oldest metal radio show in Belgium). "King of Kings" was recorded at Midas Studios which set the first step to recording the second full album "Fools" in July 2002. After a lot of false promises by Painkiller Records Crusader finally handled the release themselves and somewhere in January 2004 "Fools" was available at last, distributed by LSP Company (Belgium), Hellion Records (Germany) and Karthago Records (Germany), who has already shown an interest in releasing Crusader"s next album. Crusader hopes that their music will reach stores in all European states, especially in Germany and Poland, where their kind of heavy metal seems to be greatly appreciated. German fans already drove for several hours to purchase dozens of copies of the debut album at Crusader"s rehearsal place, because it isn"t available in Germany ... In September 2004 David and Joost decided to leave the band and start a project of their own. This event shook things up a bit, which made Filip put down the guitars and take over the vocals. A very important newcomer in the Crusader ranks is the very talented Toshiyuki Nagatani, who has proven to be some kind of "golden boy" as he learned all Crusader songs in only a couple of weeks, solo"s included. The coming of guitar player Manu Van Poeck granted Crusader a full line-up again. Because of both newcomers" hard work and dedication, no gigs needed to be cancelled ... For those in doubt : Crusader doesn"t fight for Christian values or other religions, nor do they seek to carry out a political message. (Source: official site)
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