GAYLORD - CROWN OF JOY (A SUBLIME SUN THRIVING AMONGST DYING STARS)
01. Lay Down
02. Ghost Me
03. Dread
04. Shit Scene, Shit Bands
05. White Night Gaslight
06. High and Mighty
07. Grey Rainbow
08. Coiled in Dust
09. Obfuscation of Intent
10. Ten Wing Angel
11. Nailed Deity
12. Again and Again
13. None / Nothing
14. Judgement and Justice
15. Slitting Their Throats
16. Kvlt After School Xbox Kommando
17. Sublime Sunshine
Richard Alan Weeks (Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Synths, Percussion)
Guests:
Sally - Freelance R&B Vocalist
Alena Yashkina - Vocalist for Wicked Cat, Splitmind
Junayed Hossain Rayhan - Lead guitarist for Metal Fakir
thetrashyourmomthrewout - Freelance Voice Actress
Sevlier - Freelance Jazz Vocalist
Olga Nuit - Vocalist for Ara'Kus
Kieran Scott - Vocalist for Ashen Crown
Ember O'Woody - Freelance Metal Vocalist
Karl Willetts - Memoriam, Ex-Bolt Thrower
Aaron Marko - Frontman for The Swine
Rodrigo C Giacon - Lead guitarist for Sorrow In Vain
Nate Lewis - Bassist for Ante-Inferno, Bassist and Vocalist for Petrichor
Amara Wears - Vocalist for Aubzagl, Guitarist for Petrichor
Marc Hood - Vocalist for Cadaver Soiree
Baradiel - Freelance Metal Musician
Best known for their divisive debut, 2018's "THE BLACK METAL SCENE NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED", the band have decided to continue their assault on black metal as a scene and genre this time by merging black metal with many genres of "non-kvlt" music.
Frontman Richard explains: "With THE BLACK METAL SCENE NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED we used genre trappings to assault black metal with its own aural aesthetics. Raw guitars, sloppy riffs, gurgled vocals, and the bass turned way down. This time around we wanted to 'pervert' this 'sacred' music by pairing it alongside genres that most 'true' fans hate."
CROWN OF JOY (A SUBLIME SUN THRIVING AMONGST DYING STARS) has all the anger and ferocity of previous albums THE BLACK METAL SCENE NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED and WINGS OF THE JOYFUL but merges that fury with genres like trap, RnB, jazz, j-pop, hip-hop, and hyper pop to create a unique experience that old school black metal fans will absolutely abhor.
Well 'Lay Down' may start in a traditional distorted, funeral doom style but something a little different is thrown in.
'Ghost Me' has some sweet harmony vocals intercut with some technical Death Metal whilst 'Dread' is a pretty straight forward Blackened Death Metal assault.
Some symphonic styled Black Metal with 'Grey Rainbow' is well executed and followed by some rappy stuff backed with nice piano playing.
'Obfuscation of Intent' just sounds like Dethklok!', Nailed Deity' mixes some beautiful piano with basic Metal.
Outstanding track 'Again & Again' is a fantastic brutal Death Metal attack which evolves into some great techno, this is followed by another great track 'None / Nothing', slow piano and narration into mid paced Death Metal, the mix really works well creating the perfect balance.
'Judgement and Justice' is weird, sort of hip-hop rappy thing, vocal works well but somehow sounds slightly comical.
Metal meets Pop with 'Slitting Their Throats', again suffers from bad mixing, nothing wrong with the metal meets pop idea, but just sounds like two separate songs randomly cut together.
'Kvlt After School Xbox Kommando' is so far the only track that sounds like Black Metal from ye olde tymes, I'm guessing the lyrics are not serious.
Finally we end on 'Sublime Sunshine' another mainstream melodic Death metal tune.
Mr. Weeks is clearly a talented musician, but the subversion of Black Metal is not apparent, there was a chance to be as innovative and controversial as Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park were to mainstream metal back in the day, it just hasn't worked.
I will have to wait for someone to come up with a Black (metal) Eyed Peas.
Rating 7/10
For Fans Of: Dethklok, Ghostemane, Siberian Meat Grinder, Mora Prokaza
