REVIEW: Crown The Empire – Limitless

Artist: Crown The Empire
Album: Limitless
Genre: Rise Records-core

It’s getting to be that time of year when the minds of Adderall-riddled college kids tend to wander very easily, gravitating towards absolutely anything that can become a distraction from looming final exams. My mind happens to be very good at doing such a thing, but then again, I have a lot of very interesting toys to distract myself with. My weapon of choice lately has been messing around with Ableton, and playing around with my synth program, Massive. It’s really great fun, and there are so many tiny little parameters that can be fiddled with, that it ends up being an excellent time-waster as well. But aside from helping me waste the last dwindling hours before I regret not studying more, I’m actually really enjoying myself. I actually happened to be messing with some synth leads on Massive before I decided that working on this review would also serve as a suitable alternative to doing any legitimate school work. But I will be honest, I had a bit of a hard time tearing myself away, the way I looked at it, I had to stop working on my own music, to check out another band that gave off a big scenecore vibe. So I decided to do a bit of research before I subjected myself to such a thing, and realized they definitely seemed like they were worthy of some attention, it’s not often that an unsigned band, just releasing their first EP, draws this much attention, as well as fairly universal praise. I was a bit nervous when I heard they drew from some electro influences though, being a fan of both genres, I know how easy it is to muck things up when you try and combine the two, but since I was coming fresh from working on some production of my own, I was captivated enough to not let it bother me.

As it turns out, it was a good thing I let myself get pulled away from my usual distraction, it’s not hard to see where all the hype for Crown The Empire is coming from, they definitely have something special going on for them. I can tell right now that they’re going to get their fair share of hate for the occasional auto-tuned vocals, or electro-fueled breakdowns, there is no avoiding that. But that will mostly be as a result of the tasteless employment of genre-fusing used by many of their contemporaries; I’m not sure who thought putting the most rudimentary dubstep drop imaginable in the middle of a metal breakdown was a good idea, but it’s definitely not. That’s not the sort of thing that Crown The Empire does on Limitless it all works very well together, and it shows some actual thought and expertise, it doesn’t feel like a metal guitarist heard a Skrillex song once, and thought he’d give it a go. And that’s a point that is possibly even more important than the content of the album itself, they are most certainly not that sort of band. “Breaking Point” is a good example of this overall vision, it’s definitely on the poppier end, with solid hooks, and catchy choruses, but also heavy enough to still earn themselves the right to be tagged as a metal band. That musicianship, combined with the subtle and tasteful synth lines make this band the whole package, and very much deserving of the hype they have received, and the huge amounts of hype they’re sure to see in the near future.

This sort of music is not going to be liked universally, both genres Crown The Empire draw heavy influence from are rather controversial. But like it or not, these guys have a sort of sound that will gain them a following very quickly, full of diehard fans, and detractors alike, but in the end, both are equally important. I for one can certainly appreciate what they’re trying to accomplish, and I think it’s safe to say that they pull it off in a much more dignified and respectable way than many of their contemporaries. So in that light, they won me over as a fan almost instantly, I’ll be keeping an eye out for their full length for sure. But in the mean time, back to Ableton, I wouldn’t want to spend too much time being productive. Plus, I may have found a bit of inspiration, maybe a remix is in order.

SCORE: 8/10
Reviewed by: Mike Hogan

James Shotwell
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3 Responses to “REVIEW: Crown The Empire – Limitless”

  1. Adolf says:

    horrid writing overall, for example; do you realize you start off talking about how they already have universal praise, and then end on how they cannot achieve universal praise.

  2. Nlderosia says:

    Not to mention the blatant gramatical errors throughout. I can’t take this seriously.

  3. Ilovelucy7 says:

    rise records core? You gay bra