Pennsylvania death metallers BLACK CROWN INITIATE will releasel their new album, “Selves We Cannot Forgive”, on July 22 via Entertainment One Music (eOne). The mindbending cover art was created by Travis Smith (OPETH, DEVIN TOWNSEND, AVENGED SEVENFOLD).
“We’ve been through a great deal as a band since our last release,” says guitarist 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 and Grant McFarland (AUGUST BURNS RED, TEXAS IN JULY, FROM ASHES TO NEW) at Atrium Audio Recording Studios in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, “Selves We Cannot Forgive” is 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. BLACK CROWN INITIATE 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.
“Selves We Cannot Forgive” track listing:
01. For Red Cloud
02. Sorrowpsalm
03. Again
04. Belie The Machine
05. Selves We Cannot Forgive
06. Transmit To Disconnect
07. Matriarch
08. Vicious Lives
Source: Blabbermouth
