I’ve been following Black Crown Initiate with intense interest since demo-come-EP “Song Of The Crippled Bull” announced their brand of progressive death metal to the world in 2013. On the heels of said EP were two critically acclaimed albums, before the band took a semi-hiatus between 2017-18 following “label trouble”. Having inked a fresh deal with Century Media last year, they return with their third opus.

Describing the BCI sound is not easy, though if you can imagine Gojira, Meshuggah and Opeth getting together to jam on King Crimson tunes you’d be in the right ball park. They don’t follow the metal norms, often cleverly switching gears on the listener without warning. They are blessed with two very unique vocalists, frontman James Dorton displays great versatility in roaring, shouting and even throat-singing on the incredible “Bellows”, which he apparently recorded in one take. This is juxtaposed by guitarist-singer Andy Thomas, whose own melodious voice-of-an-angel lends significant emotional weight to the songs.

“Death Comes In Reverse” is without doubt a highlight.  The folkish, opening chords are punctuated with guttural vocals and singing, with a swinging rhythm maintained throughout as we traverse a series of riffs and melodies. With “Sun Of War” we have a great example of how the two vocalists compliment each other, a reflective, patient intro and opening verse giving way to a much heavier slice of tech-death in the middle section and ending.

I’ve mixed feelings towards “Year In Frigid Light”. The demo of this track was released as a single in August 2019 to coincide with their European tour. That version had a sharp directness to it, giving the clean sung chorus enormous emotional punch, and when the guttural vocals come back on the third verse they feel very brooding. The original melody over the final chorus took the aforementioned emotional punch to almost heart-breaking heights, unfortunately the oversaturated guitar effects on this finished version has taken some of the soul out of an incredibly powerful song. It’s a bit of a cliché in metal circles to say “I preferred the demo”, but in the case of this song, it’s definitely true.

Despite the overly-polished production job on some parts, this album is very rewarding for patient listeners, and I can’t wait for this COVID shit to be over so we can hear these great songs breathe in a live environment.

(8/10 Doogz)

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