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I liked Crescent Shield's debut album The Last Of My Kind, and I had hopes that this band would produce a real killer follow-up. The debut had some strong tunes as well as some undeniable weak points, but it showed serious potential. That potential is not much realized on their second full-length The Stars Of Never Seen.

Once again the riffs are good, and the general US Metal Fates Warning/Steel Prophet approach is the same as it was, with a bit more of a tendency towards sprawling, proggy songwriting this time. There are a lot of hooks and melodies in these songs, the problem being that they don't always seem to have anything to do with each other, and they just present the appearance of a big jumble of riffs all thrown together. The other problem is Micheal Grant, who has a good voice, but he has been using the same vocal recording style for like 15 years now, and the weak, echoey quality is getting really old. I keep hoping to hear him bite into a song and really go for it, but his delivery remains rather tepid and restrained. In addition, his tendency to write weak vocal lines really hampers this album, and I wonder what this album would sound like with a singer who sounded awake. "Tides of Fire" stands out as maybe the best song here, showing what this band can do when they are kicking.

For most of this album, however, Crescent Shield are not kicking. They throw bucketfuls of riffs at you, but I had to keep making myself pay attention to this, as the barrage of so-so music just became a blur after a while, and my attention would wander. I had high hopes for Crescent Shield, and they still have the talent and chops to make a great album, but this is not it.