After completing a successful run on the 2016 Metal Alliance tour, Black Crown initiate have announced new plans to hit the road this summer supporting Australian import Ne Obliviscaris. Dates will kick off on July 12th in San Diego with a full coast to coast run before finishing up back out west in Phoenix one month later on August 12th. "We are incredibly excited!" says guitarist Andy Thomas. "We are long-time fans and even opened for them on their first ever US show. We spoke about this possibility then, and the fact that it is happening makes us all very happy. We are sure that fans of progressive metal will get their fill! See you all there!"  

Tour dates:

July
12 – San Diego, CA – Brick By Brick
13 - Los Angeles, CA - Whisky A Go Go
14 - San Francisco, CA - DNA Lounge
16 - Portland,. OR - Hawthorne Theater
17 - Bellingham, WA - The Shakedown
18 - Seattle, WA - The Crocodile
19 - Vancouver, BC - Rickshaw Theater
21 - Edmonton, AB - Starlight Room
22 - Calgary, AB - Dickens
24 - Minneapolis, MN - Cabooze
25 - Chicago, IL - Reggie's
26 - Cleveland, OH - Agora Ballroom
27 - Toronto, ON - Mod Club
28 - Montreal, QC - Petit Campus
29 - New York, NY - Gramercy Theater
31 - Boston, MA - ONCE Ballroom

August
1 - Philadelphia, PA - Voltage Lounge
2 - Baltimore, MD - Soundstage
3 - Atlanta, GA - Masquerade
5 - Austin, TX - Dirty Dog Bar
6 - San Antonio. TX - The Rock Box
7 - Ft. Worth, TX - Rail Club
8 - Kansas City, MO - Riot Room
10 - Denver, CO - Bluebird
11 - Albuquerque, NM - Launchpad
12 - Phoenix, AZ - Joe's Grotto

Black Crown Initiate will join Born Of Osiris, Veil Of Maya and Volumes on the Sumerian Alliance European Tour in fall 2016. The run marks Black Crown Initiate's first visit to Europe.

Tour dates:

September
9 - Karlsruhe, Germany - Stadtmitte  
10 - Brussels, Belgium - VK  
11 - Leeds, UK - Key Club  
12 - Glasgow, UK - Classic Grand  
13 - Manchester, UK - Sound Control  
14 - Cardiff, UK - The Globe  
15 - London, UK - O2 Islington Academy  
16 - Tilburg, Netherlands - 013  
17 - Paris, France - Fleche d'Or  
18 - Toulouse, France - Metronum  
20 - Madrid, Spain - Changó   
21 - Barcelona, Spain - Salamandra 2  
22 - Montpellier, France - Secret Place  
23 - Milano, Italy - Legend Club  
24 - Lausanne, Switzerland - Cerbervs Fest  
25 - Saarbrücken, Germany - Garage  
26 - München, Germany - Backstage  
27 - Wien, Austria - Arena  
28 - Budapest, Hungary - Durer Kurt  
29 - Katowice, Poland - Mega Club  
30 - Leipzig, Germany - Täubchenthal  

October
1 - Köln, Germany - Euroblast   
2 - Köln, Germany - Euroblast   
3 - Berlin, Germany - Musik & Frieden
5 - Stockholm, Sweden - En Arena  
6 - Oslo, Norway - John Dee  
7 - Gothenburg, Sweden - Fangelset   
8 - Aarhus, Denmark - Atlas

Tickets at this location.

Black Crown Initiate will release their new album, Selves We Cannot Forgive, on July 22nd via Entertainment One Music (eOne). The new track, "For Red Cloud”, is streaming below. It is the first bit of new music we've heard from the band since the release of their previous LP in 2014.

Guitarist Andy Thomas calls the song, "a statement of the psychological enslavement of the modern world, and a tribute to those who resisted being enslaved. We will never become the storm of change that our world needs. Our children will never know what true freedom feels like, and we surely don't, either."

"We've been through a great deal as a band since our last release," says Andy Thomas. "We've grown a great deal as writers, players, and people and put everything we had into this one."

Recorded and mixed by Carson Slovak & Grant McFarland (August Burns Red, Texas In July, From Ashes To New) at Atrium Audio Recording Studio’s in Lancaster PA, Selves We Cannot Forgive will be the follow up to the buzzworthy debut LP The Wreckage of Stars released at the end of 2014. The Wreckage of Stars also propelled the band into the international touring act it is today. BCI quickly found themselves on the road with the likes of Behemoth, Deicide, Napalm Death and Voivod.  

Selves We Can Not Forgive, the band’s sophomore album with Entertainment One, is a lean and focused collection that jettisons the extraneous fat found too often within ambitious metal bands, striking a balance between fearless adventurousness and methodical might. It follows The Wreckage of Stars, which together with their self-financed Song of the Crippled Bull EP introduced Black Crown Initiate’s unapologetic exploration of everything from Friedrich Nietzsche and Greek Sophist Gorgias to Hinduism, Buddhism, and indigenous mysticism, with a pragmatic skepticism.

Thomas continues on their new release, “We feel it is a more than fitting next chapter for the band; one that we are truly proud and excited to enter. We hope you all enjoy it too. See you on the road!"

Black Crown Initiate have worked their way into the heavy music community’s collective consciousness with steady determination. Likeminded supporters who made the thrilling discovery of songs like “A Great Mistake,” “The Fractured One,” and “Withering Waves” are rewarded in kind by the continued evolution on Selves We Can Not Forgive. As Black Crown Initiate continuously proves, heavy metal and heavy intelligence don’t have to be mutually exclusive. These men are conjuring an awe inspiring body of work that is as unstoppable as it was inevitable, like existence itself. This is high-minded art delivered with a guttural growl.

Tracklisting:

“For Red Cloud”
“Sorrowpsalm”
“Again”
“Belie The Machine”
“Selves We Cannot Forgive”
“Transmit To Disconnect”
“Matriarch”
“Vicious Lives”

Remaining tour dates with Dying Fetus:

May
27 - Knoxville, TN - The International
28 - Dayton, OH - Oddbody’s
29 - Greensboro, NC - Arizona Pete's

(Photo - Trevor Sweeney)