BLACK CROWN INITIATE - Selves We Cannot Forgive

July 26, 2016, 7 years ago

(eOne)

David Perri

Rating: 7.0

review heavy metal black crown initiate

BLACK CROWN INITIATE - Selves We Cannot Forgive

Man, Black Crown Initiate sure does have a flair for the dramatic, what with its latest record title getting all uncompromisingly self-reflective (Selves We Cannot Forgive) and its previous full-length telling us of enormities that don’t happen without major repercussions (The Wreckage Of Stars), or so says the last Physics class I took many, many moons ago (no pun). Thing is, Black Crown Initiate’s album titles are very much in line with its brand of serious, progressive death, so it all kind of fits in the twisted order of the metal world.

Selves We Cannot Forgive stays in the same places and spaces as previous works, which roughly means Agalloch, Dream Theater, older Opeth, ICS Vortex clean vocals, Katatonia rain and bits of deathcore to create an air of modernity, Black Crown Initiate sounding like the product of intense study of its favorites, while also wanting to fit in, at least vaguely, with millennials at a Born Of Osiris or Veil Of Maya show. When examined objectively, there is very little to fault here, Black Crown Initiate flawless in terms of technique, these songs brimming with unique parts, melancholic and vaguely menacing leads, and the confidence of a group that rightfully knows that it has massive potential to put its disparate parts to work into a whole able to overturn things, fully completely. 

But where Black Crown Initiate is limited is in its emphasis on writing really cold, clinical tracks that sometimes feel like collections of parts, which reminds of Monotheist, the Celtic Frost record that could have damn near revolutionized the genre if it hadn’t been so obviously stitched together in very awkward ways (which may have been the point, I realize, because it was an album meant to provoke, but it could have provoked more effectively had it felt organic and holistic, which is another conversation for another time).  The fact that the songs here don’t impact on first listen is evidently a symptom of this band’s deep commitment to its craft, but more immediacy wouldn’t do Black Crown Initiate any harm.

All of which is not to say that Selves We Cannot Forgive is a bad record. Far from it, actually. This is an album that is going to be intensely loved by lovingly intense fans, Black Crown Initiate having written an authentic record - one with gravitas, which is a rarity - that is an ode to its influences, its state of being, and its fans who probably live this art form daily.  



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