"Riding on progressive metal waves": A review of Black Crown Initiate's "The Wreckage of Stars"

Dear readers of my blog!

Here comes a review of the debut record of a band that I discovered earlier this year when the quintet performed with Napalm Death, Voivod, Exhumed and Iron Reagan at Maverick in Ottawa. The band's fascinating mixture of sophisticated progressive metal sounds and unchained death metal brutality had impressed me so much that I decided to purchase the band's first full length output. Several months and countless spins later, I've decided to support this promising newcomer by writing a review of their latest output. Fans of bands such as Augury, Gojira, Opeth and the bands mentioned in my article should give this group a fair chance.

Take good care and enjoy some new music!

Sebastian Kluth 

Black Crown Initiate is a promising progressive death metal quintet from Reading, Pennsylvania that was founded back in 2013. After the release of the EP “Song of the Crippled Bull”, the band brought out its first full length effort “The Wreckage of Stars” in autumn 2014. Over nearly fifty-three minutes, the quintet meanders from calm and introspective passages with clean vocals, acoustic guitars and extended instrumental sections to brutal and expressive parts with powerful growls, furious blastbeats and punching stakkato riffs.

Personally, I adore the band’s most progressive and varied tracks. The opener “The Great Mistake” is by far the best song on the entire record. It opens with hypnotizing sitar sounds that recall their Russian colleagues Kartikeya in a positive way. The track slowly builds up with a balanced mixtured of almost doom metal inspired riffs and furious drum parts before unchained growls contribute to the menacing tone. The climax of these multiple influences is the addicting chorus performed by longing clean vocals. The quintet slows down the intensity in the numbing middle part with haunting spoken word passages that almost recall post rock influences before the track goes back to its more vivid tone and ends with the exotic sitar patterns from the introduction. In the progressive metal genre, you can’t ask for a better song than this and I sincerely hope the band puts out more tracks of this quality in the future.

Even though the other tracks can’t match the excellence of the intense opener, there are still several outstanding tracks on this album. “The Malignant” and “Withering Waves” are quite similar to the opener minus the sitar sounds. They feature melancholic clean vocals, harmonious acoustic guitar passages and calm instrumental sections with almost jazz-influenced parts that meet throaty growls, technical blastbeats and distorted guitar sounds that wouldn’t sound of of place on a Voivod record. That being said, the drum play isn’t just fast and brutal. While some parts are dominated by blastbeats, the drummer always plays a slower second rhythm at the same time and also brings in efficient mid-tempo beats in the more longing parts. From a technical point of view, his work on this record is probably the most outstanding contribution. From an emotional side, I’m really falling for the melancholic clean vocals and the use of acoustic guitars or the sitars in the opener.

Title song “The Wreckage of Stars” is mostly instrumental and has a very technical tone where the ferociously fast drum play clashes with numbing atmospheric guitar sounds. Despite a length close to seven minutes, the track never gets boring and has a coherent atmospheric guiding line that reminds me of instrumental progressive metal band Unbeing. It's definitely an outstanding tune on an outstanding album.

Those who prefer faster and more brutal death metal tracks will be satisfied with the pitiless stomper “The Fractured One” that really takes no prisoners in three and a half minutes. “The Human Lie Manifest” is one minute longer and heads in a similar direction but focuses more on the stunning guitar work by including a beautiful melodic solo section. Both more intellectual and more emotional extreme metal fans will find something they adore on this release.

In the end, Black Crown Initiate delivers one of the best progressive extreme metal releases in recent years along with the latest outputs by Voivod, Shining, Serdce, M.H.X’s Chronicles and maybe Atrocity. The mixture of sophisticated creativity and unbound passion in the most epic tracks that convince in both the calmer and heavier tones is truly spectacular. Fans of all bands mentioned in this review should immediately check this band out.

Final rating: 90%

Please support the band and check out the following links:

Bandcamp: http://blackcrowninitiate.bandcamp.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BlackCrownInitiate

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/BlackCrownInitiate/videos