Hell Fighter>>CROWLEY - JAPAN

Whisper Of The Evil – 1986 - Electric Lady Land

Crowley image
  
 
Members
Vocals
IWAI TAKASHI

Guitar
Tilt>>Kokune Yoshinori>>Tilt


Bass
Kuroyanagi Noriyuki

Drum
Tilt>>SHIGA ‘HIRO’ MITSUHIRO>>Tilt





History & Biography
The rare metal band hailing from Nagoya in central Japan, Crowley was born Hell Fighter in 1982 before changing its monicker in 1983. Singer Iwai joined at this juncture. The band quickly garnered a reputation owing to its occult lyrics, shows and make-up.

Demo ’84 featured two tracks. Electric Lady Land Records, which was affiliated with the club of the same name, issued the band’s The Scream Of Death 8”. This remains the band’s fan favourite release. The line-up featured Iwai Takashi on vocals, Kokune Yoshinori on guitar, Kuroyanagi Noriyuki on bass and drummer Shiga ‘Hiro’ Mitsuhiro. The same label issued the band’s full-length, Whisper Of The Evil, a year later. The band was touring with the Devil’s Metal Night Tour and Whisper Of The Evil tour monickers. A self-titled demo featuring drummer Gono Hiroyuki was issued in 1987. Noriyuki was soon gone however and the act disbanded. The man and Hiro were actually replaced (new bassist was Nakamura Tadashi) and the band attempted to forge ahead, but nothing had come of it. Three members reunited for an event on the occasion of the relocation of the Electric Lady Land venue in 2000.

Crowley reformed with three older members, namely Takashi Iwai, Shiga Mitsuhiro and Yoshinori Kokune, in November 2014. Shunji Miyoshi was the bassist. The group began releasing music unlike many bands which reform and are not productive. The older song Ghoul, for which the band created two videos, was followed by a demo called Nocturne. The group was promised a North American tour called Metal All Stars and began preparing an album with English lyrics in 2017. However, the promoter had a magic act of its own up its sleeve and disappeared. The dream came to naught. The band was issuing music through its own Dropout Music (named after the aforementioned promoter?). The band returned to Electric Lady Land on 30.12.2017 and additionally taped a video called Evening Prayer in 2018. Whisper Of The Evil was also re-released. Guitarist and founder Yoshinori died in the autumn of 2019. The man had left months earlier due to illness. He was replaced by Kent and the band forged ahead.

Evil Bride of 2020 came in an edition with a bonus DVD. Several live recordings followed including Horror Rock Show!! - Live From The 80's, which featured music from the band’s 1980’s incarnation. 悪魔がにくい (‘I Hate The Devil’) was a 2021 EP. The band played with Sexmachineguns in late 2022. Dropout Music Entertainment released a late 2023 demo called Friday. The band announced several Japanese shows for that autumn. Friday was a 2023 demo issued on October 13th, which was a Friday. The band had three concerts booked in October and November.




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