Album Review: BLACK CROWN INITIATE Violent Portraits of Doomed Escape (8/7)

Released by Century Media Records on August 7th, 2020

Quick Background

Black Crown Initiate (BCI) is a progressive death metal group from Pennsylvania. Prior to 2020, they released 2014's The Wreckage of Stars and 2016's Selves We Cannot Forgive. Both were very well received by most critics. I personally don't know the debut very well but the second one is a very good album that was on my top 10 2016's year-end list. The current line-up is the original vocalist James Dorton, guitarist & clean voice Andy Thomas, and bassist Nick Shaw. Additionally the guitarist Ethan McKenna who joined in 2018. They don't have an official drummer. But Gabe Seeber (The Kennedy Veil / Tech Death Metal) recorded the new album. 

Violent Portraits of Doomed Escape

After 4 years of wait, BCI is bringing their latest effort, Violent Portraits of Doomed Escape. From the get go I liked the structure of the album. 9 songs in 51 minutes, pretty concise. Two of those are short instrumentals: Tracks #5 and the last one #9. I like this also because it breaks the album into two parts. It is a nice parallel to the album cover with the two kings' heads depicting a version of a King of Hearts card. Also good points here for the very nice artwork. While the songs are relatively long, they never go above 8 minutes. It makes VPoDE not so difficult to digest for a prog album while still giving a lot of room for solos, instrumental interludes and experimentation without being excessive. 

The first minute of "Invitation" serves as the album intro, clean vocals over an acoustic guitar. The contrast with the second verse is shocking. When I heard it for the first time, it really made an impact. We went from Genesis-like to Behemoth-like in just over a minute. Those first minutes are already a good sample of the album ahead. It's very dynamic, progressive, heavy at times but also atmospheric and elegante at other moments. It mixes aggression and melody very well. 

A highlight for is the guitar work. In that case, not only the album title resembles Meshuggah (Violent Sleep of Reason) but also the fantastic guitarwork as well. Speaking of guitars, we are blessed with some very strong guitar solos. The one in the opening track "Invitation" (followed by an acoustic interlude, only enhances the experience) and another one on “Holy Silence” are two of my favorites.  

"Years in Frigid Light" was the first single from November 2019 as a demo, but after playing the song live they perfected it and this version is fantastic. It features a very cool guitar tone and a super catchy chorus contrasting with the aggressive death metal vocals. It's almost like a song from the previous album on steroids.  "Son of War" slows things down to a haunting mood, it's a nice short song. What I found very interesting was the clean vocals reminding me a lot of Mastodon's Brann Dailor voice (which is a compliment in my book). It's a very melodic and catchy chorus. A feature that re occur at several moments in the album. Also at display here are the abilities of the session drummer Gabe Seeber.  Fantastic performance on this album. 

The instrumental (for a lack of a better word, because it actually sounds like an annoyed  primate screaming) "Below" serves as a moment to catch your breath before the second half deliver yet 3 more  songs. Additionally, there are several passages where BCI slows down a bit and focus more on their more atmospheric aspects. Usually not for a full song, but in some intros and interludes (e.g. "Trauma Bonds" or "Death Comes in Reverse", but all over the album really). 

"Holy Silence" brings the album to a close in style as it is one of the best in the album. It features some of the most aggressive moments and a fantastic guitar solo. Here the death growls go more into Between the Buried and Me mode. Which reminds me to mention that even the death metal vocals from James Dorton are dynamic and he can sound anywhere from Behemoth's Nergal to Between the Buried and Me's Tommy Rogers.

Overall, I like the production, it's modern and clear, the drums sound great and the bass is usually clear in the mix. The use of acoustic guitars also worked well. There are some interesting movements when listening on headphones, so I recommend that. 

The Picky Guy

I don't really have any major complains if I'd pick a couple things would be that sometimes the transitions were very abrupt which disturbed the flow a bit. The second little thing is that there's a bit too much atmospheric or clean passages, maybe some songs could exist without them or be on a bit faster tempo. In that sense "Death Comes in Reverse" is one song that didn't really appeal to me.

Wrap Up Opinion 

BCI fans will dig this album as it is not a big departure from the previous records while having its own character. Regarding new fans, I believe it will have greater appeal to the prog fans than to the death metal ones. That's because there's a lot of clean vocals, atmospheric and melodic passages. For me that works and Violent Portraits of Doomed Escape is one of the best prog album of 2020 and at par with the previous releases. As a very good album, I'm giving it 83/100. If you want a class on moder prog-metal, give it a try.

SCORE: 83/100
Genre: Progressive Death Metal
Released by Century Media Records on August 7th, 2020

Rating System*
99 - 100 Perfect
94 - 98 Excellent
87 - 93 Great
82 - 86 Very Good
77 - 81 Good
66 - 76 Mixed
58 - 65 Bad

* slightly adapted on May 24th, 2020 due to statistical review
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