ALBUM REVIEW: Sudden Sky – Crown The Empire

Though its momentum seems to have slowed massively in the past couple of years – ‘Warped Tour’ scene metalcore was on fire in the early to mid 2010’s. Bands like SLEEPING WITH SIRENS, MEMPHIS MAY FIRE, and OF MICE & MEN had captured the youth zeitgeist, and as a result received massive commercial success. As we plunge towards the end of the decade – most of the bands that were thriving in the scene just 5 years ago have come across a somewhat downhill slope since, or fell from the edge of music altogether. Dallas Texas’ CROWN THE EMPIRE had the misfortune of simply coming along at the wrong time. Their debut full length record The Fallout came at a time when the version of metalcore that they were looking to slot into was already about to hit its peak. It’s resulted in the quartet always managing to maintain a fan base more than large enough to sustain their careers – but never gaining one big enough to explode them into the same category of popularity as some of their peers have reached.

With new record Sudden Sky being the bands first album since the departure of former heavy vocalist Dave Escamilla – the time couldn’t be more apt for CROWN THE EMPIRE to hit the reset button and reinvent themselves. Unfortunately Sudden Sky is often little more than Retrograde 2.0. While this may not read as a disappointment to pre-existing fans of the quartet, you can’t help but feel like the opportunity for CROWN THE EMPIRE to mould themselves into a product that fits better into the direction metal is heading has been missed.

At this point in there careers, the Texan’s can ill afford for their output to be ultra polite – but that’s what Sudden Sky is, it’s a record that seemingly does its best to not offend anyone. From the almost half interesting spoken word openings of the album on (X) to the whistle clean chorus of what i am, this is the very depiction of a ‘by the numbers’ CROWN THE EMPIRE album.

There are moments where the band capture a spark however, the closing breakdown of the title track has a genuine edge to it, and the soaring chorus of MZRY will sound gargantuan in academy sized venues. But what Sudden Sky suffers from is a lack of literally anything new from a band that already weren’t unique in their setting. With all that said, if you’re going into this record in the hope that CROWN THE EMPIRE stuck to their blueprint throughout – you can expect satisfaction.

Outside of the occasional eyebrow raising breakdown, or melodic burst from Andy Leo Rockhold, Sudden Sky is largely void of a unique selling point away from the fact that it’s a CROWN THE EMPIRE record. Admittedly this is more than enough for some to take the bait, and there’s no doubt that the quartet have a fan base that could well find solace in the albums predictable tones. But if you’re heading into Sudden Sky hoping for something more than early 2010’s light metalcore with the year changed around to 2019 – you’ll be left wanting.

Rating: 6/10

Sudden Sky is set for release July 19th via Rise Records.

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