Progressive heaviness replacing fluid lightness - A review of Black Crown Initiate's Violent Portraits of Doomed Escape

Pennsylvanian quartet Black Crown Initiate has become one of the best progressive extreme metal bands since the release of its excellent extended play Song of the Crippled Bull followed by the successful full length debut The Wreckage of Stars and the adventurous second output Selves We Cannot Forgive. New guitarist Ethan McKenna joined the band two years ago while the drumming position is still an issue but the band has been releasing five different singles over ten months leading to the release of Violent Portraits of Doomed Escape.

This third full length effort that comes four years after its predecessor is a logical continuation of the previous outputs. The band still combines calm and melodic passages based upon technically appealing guitar harmonies and emotive clean vocals with energetic outbursts around unchained harsh vocals, brutal riffs and a dynamic rhythm section. The instrumental work has become even more progressive over the past few years as even the most brutal riffs have complex chord progressions. The rhythm section has become more adventurous, experimental and playful as well. Despite a few shorter tunes, especially the song writing in the longer tunes has become even more ambitious than before.

These are the reasons why this album in particular needs a few spins to unfold. The complex opener ''Invitation'' with its numerous sudden breaks and the complicated ''Holy Silence'' would have benefited from a more concise song writing with less ideas and a more compact running time for instance. Especially the opener starts the album on a rather complicated note and would fit much better towards the end of the record.

There are no immediately appealing tunes such as ''A Great Mistake'' or ''Belie the Machine'' on the two predecessors but the band hasn't lost its ability to mix ambitious ideas with fluid songwriting. The atmospheric, coherent and structured ''Trauma Bonds'' flirts with post metal elements and fluently combines melodic parts with harsh outbursts. ''Years in Frigid Light'' similarly contrasts unchained growls breaking through noisy instrumental work with appeasing, calm and floating passages domineered by comforting, dreamy and fragile clean vocals without forgetting about instrumental transitions that keep the ambitious songwriting together. The latter song can be considered the album's highlight and has appropriately been chosen as first single.

Fans of Black Crown Initiate's predecessors should also like Violent Portraits of Doomed Escape. The band's ability to contrast brutal extreme metal outbursts based upon complex riffs and unchained growls with calm passages around acoustic guitar tones and dreamy clean vocals still shines on this output. Since the musicianship has become even more technical and the songwriting even more ambitious, the new tracks need even more time to unfold than usual. The record even includes a filler with the weird nerve-firing throat-singing interlude ''Bellows''. Still, the final result should appeal to fans of old date and Violent Portraits of Doomed Escape would also be an appropriate starting point to discover one of the world's greatest contemporary progressive extreme metal bands.

Final rating: 85%