Crown The Empire // Dogma // Album Review

It’s been nearly five years since we last heard from Crown The Empire, but we now have their fifth studio album in our sights.

Having stormed onto the scene, the band quickly amassed an impressive following, which led to them touring with the likes of Slipknot, Pierce The Veil, Asking Alexandria and Falling In Reverse and have amassed a whopping 700 million streams across all platforms.

But that was then, this is now. Have the band adapted in this 5-year hiatus? Well beyond having a new drummer, Jeeves Avalos who began touring with the band in 2021, there is a feeling of going backward to move forward. Taking aspects of the sound that got them on those impressive tours whilst also growing provides an impressive platform for this release.

This 10-track release also has some guest appearances by Courtney LaPlante of Spiritbox and Remington Leith of Palaye Royale as the content takes a direct and honest approach having been forced to take a look internally throughout the pandemic.

Opening with the title track, the guitars and vocals lead you to believe that something heavy is coming, and that is exactly what happens. After the choppy guitars and the clean yet slightly distorted vocals ramp up you know it’s about to drop and that’s exactly what happens. Is a nice welcome to the album and sets the tone for what is coming. A mixture of clean and harsh vocals over some scything guitars and crushing drums.

As the album continues toward ‘In Another Life’ which features Courtney LaPlante, this starts off with harsher vocals, more of a pure Metalcore sound with a harmonious chorus parting the waves of heavy punchy guitars. Then the gorgeous guest vocal takes over and adds an extra layer of smoothness all battling with that heavy in a classic back and forth.

There are some real gems throughout this album and it’s clear that the band have thought a lot about the sound its content. There really aren’t any dud tracks, they are all entertaining and will have you singing or screaming along as the deep bass tone slaps you in the gut and the guitars chop away at you.

Dogma is a very welcome back for Crown The Empire and I have no doubt that the streaming figures will shoot up with this release as the band look to regain their place in the upper echelons of Heavy Rock.

Ed Ford

Dogma will be released Friday 28^th April 2023 via Rise Records.