ALBUM INFO: 'This is a Sickness and Sickness Will End' was recorded in Spring 2016 by Mike Bond at Wolf Lake Studios in Lac-Des-Loups, QC, with additional recording by the band's own Jordan Bell at Atomic Audio in Ottawa. It was mixed by Matt Bayles (who has worked with a veritable who's-who of heavier punk/hardcore: Tragedy, Mastodon, Botch, Murder City Devils, Isis, From Ashes Rise, and many other notable artists including Pearl Jam, Deftones, Alice In Chains, etc.) at his own Red Room Recording in Seattle, WA and mastered by Martin Bowitz (of anarcho-hardcore luminaries The Spectacle and brilliant indie-pop outfit Cold Mailman) at Strype Audio in Oslo, Norway. Musically, the band wanted to expand further upon its earlier output by incorporating more influence from artists whose music is as emotive and dynamic as their lyricism - Cave In, Sunny Day Real Estate/The Fire Theft, Peter Gabriel, Tiamat, Concrete Blonde, etc. - thus broadening song structures with more complex instrumentation and arrangements, coupled with a heavy, vibrant production. Thematically, This is a Sickness and Sickness Will End doesn't stray entirely from CRUSADES' recurring 'spiritual' questioning, but this time around, Dave (the band’s primary songwriter and lyricist) chose to reflect on the loss of two parental figures within the span of one year and many of the very human anxieties surrounding mortality that came along with that experience. In addition to his own family's various coping strategies (from his own atheism to others' deeply held religious beliefs), he looked to many of his favourite poets' and lyricists' own reflections on death and loss (including Felicia Hemans, Lord Byron, Emily Bronte, and Ottawa’s own Archibald Lampman), comparing their written experiences to his own, borrowing a few particularly relevant lines, and attempting to highlight the universality of mortality throughout time and culture. QUOTES ABOUT ALBUM: "Emotive, enraged, and at all times impassioned, Crusades charts a course through the agony of existence. And they do it with grace, amidst riffs and styles reminiscent of Propagandhi, but with even more melody." -Greg Bennick (Between Earth & Sky/Trial) "This new Crusades record is awesome! Interestingly, some of the the story of the record takes place around the same time as King Diamond's classic album Abigail (Abigail was born dead on the seventh day of July, 1777) and it carries on the same dark tone that era tends to evoke but with a more serious presentation. While a lot of bands these days are beating a dead horse's carcass to into a densely packed jerky, Crusades' tunes are creative and presented with seeming disregard for genres, able to create an ambient tuned down heavy dirge while still retaining catchy melodic punk sounds. There are awesome harmonies and a great overall dark vibe (I can HONESTLY say I haven't heard a song that sounds like "The Scorching Fevers" before). It's all topped off with a great mix by the mighty Matt Bayles. The record has well-thought-out lyrics inspired by coping with the loss of real-life loved ones. Since I spent the last year in a dismal fog after my own Pop passed away, I can, unfortunately, relate to the feelings expressed. Hopefully for the time being the people you know are safe and you can enjoy the dark passages as an empathetic observer. If you can relate, then at least you know there are other people going through the same thing as you and coming out of it with something profound to show for it. In the end, I guess we can consider ourselves lucky - unlike Miriam and Jonathan on King Diamond's Abigail, at least we get to mourn without the ghosts of our loved ones coming back to haunt us and push us down the stairs. Awesome record, congrats Crusades." -Todd Kowalski (Propagandhi/I Spy) BAND BIO: Ottawa's CRUSADES began in 2009, comprised of Jordan Bell on drums, Scott McCash on bass/vocals, Emmanuel Sayer on guitar/vocals, and Dave Williams on guitar/vocals. Prior to CRUSADES’ formation, the four members played in such established local bands as Sedatives, The Creeps, Buried Inside, The Steve Adamyk Band and others. The band’s initial and ever-evolving goal is to examine profound personal and universal topics – love, art, life, death, etc - through a lens of freethinking and atheism, offering a critical perspective rooted in philosophical, political, musicological, poetic and historical study. To date CRUSADES has released two full-length albums: 2011’s The Sun is Down and The Night is Riding In (a four-way split release between It’s Alive Records / Razorcake Records in North America and Sabotage Records / Hardware Records in Europe) and 2013’s Perhaps You Deliver This Judgment with Greater Fear Than I Receive It (on Gainesville, Florida’s long-running No Idea Records).