Black Crown Initiate-Selves We Cannot Forgive
Technical death metal is a very acquired taste. I’m sure the first time you tried coffee or beer you just couldn’t understand the appeal at all. This style of death metal is hyper-aggressive in style. Usually played on 7 or 8 string guitars, it gets really heavy and it is normally super fast. Reading, Pennsylvania’s Black Crown Initiate are among a group of newer bands specializing in this type of metal. The new album, released on July 22, is their sophomore release and shows a bit more emotional depth than their debut album, The Wreckage of Stars. A unique characteristic of this band is the dueling vocals. Lead vocalist James Dorton handles the death growls and lead guitarist, Andy Thomas, provides some downright angelic clean vocals. The dichotomy provides interesting textures over the brutal aspect of the underlying music. Seeing them perform live is somewhat of a trip because Thomas looks like a mountain man/werewolf/sasquatch hybrid and hearing such a beautiful singing voice coming out of him is a little jolting.
Here is a sample song to give you a taste. Remember: the more of this stuff you listen to; the more it starts to make sense. Eventually you will begin to crave it.
The list so far:
20(a). Metallica-Hardwired…To Self Destruct
20. The Dillinger Escape Plan-Dissociation
19. Russian Circles-Guidance
18. Anciients-Voice of the Void
17. Abbath-Abbath
16. Death Angel-The Evil Divide
15. John Wesley-a way you’ll never be
14. Black Crown Initiate-Selves We Cannot Forgive
DISPATCHES FROM THE VOID 