Crown Lands / Fearless when you get into it, it’s so beautiful

Powerhouse rock duo Crown Lands will release their sophomore studio album Fearless on 31 March 2023 through Spinefarm Records/Universal Music Canada. 

Starlifter: Fearless Pt. II was the first track shared. “This is truly our crowning achievement,” Kevin Comeau said. “The best song we have written so far. An 18-minute opus. A testament to the power of prog. A document of just how much noise two people can create.”

Crown lands released their debut album in August 2020. It is not often you come across something so spectacular and groundbreaking in this day and age, but as a debut album, Crown Lands have cracked a nugget here. “The seven-track majestic piece of craft is so beautifully unique that it fully deserves to find itself wading out of the quagmire of releases ahead of others,” MetalTalk said.

If their debut album was more about a blues-rock experience, if you are forced to pigeonhole it, Fearless explores the band’s earlier passions for prog rock. “I mean, let’s be honest here, there’s a little bit of cleverness for cleverness’ sake in there, too,” Comeau smiles. “But it is really fun. We had so much fun tracking this music. I think we were both able to do what we wanted to do as artists for so long.” 

Starlifter: Fearless Pt. II embodies otherworldly, Vangelis-esque qualities offset by juicy rock solos, sci-fi mystique, a captivating 11/8 section, gentle chimes and gauzy synths. It also builds on the same protagonist, the same universe that Crown Lands have been cultivating. “This epic story spans hundreds of years following our titular hero: Fearless after the events of ]2021 single] The Oracle,” Cody Bowles said. “He stands against the colonization of outer space and the decimation of his people to reclaim what was stolen by capitalistic greed and bloodshed.” 

Bowles also writes science fiction. “These are themes that may sound like a mere fantastic tale to some,” Bowles says, “but we wanted to marry sci-fi elements with very real issues Indigenous people have gone through time and time again. I guess that would be called Indigenous futurism. I have always loved songs that give you more the more you lean into them, and there is a deeper meaning to this story if you look for it.”

The album contains two previously released tracks, Context: Fearless Pt. I and Right Way Back that act as familiar touchpoints framing the new soundscape.

Crown Lands – Lade Of The Lake

This is built on more by the release of the single Lady Of The Lake. “Steeped in a myriad of mythology, our song Lady Of The Lake tells a tale of an ancient battle for control over the realm and a powerful goddess who is called upon to dispel the darkness,” Bowles says. “This takes place in the same world as Fearless, but long ago.”

“I love the textures we’ve got in this song,” Comeau says. “I doubled the electric guitar with a 12-string acoustic for most of it. There are lots of Mellotron and Moog Taurus moments in this piece that give it that medieval-meets-outer space fantastical quality. I’m particularly proud of the Leslie-soaked guitar solo in 15/8.”

Lady Of The Lake is accompanied by a video that is the ritualistic celebration of the story’s first hero, who emerges from the water, soaked with power and purpose. “We wanted to invoke the feeling of something grand and mystical with this piece while recontextualizing fragments of our own real-world mythologies,” Bowles says. “Blurring these lines, we hope you’re taken to another place altogether and a little further into this fun world we’re creating.”

Crown Lands have been on MetalTalk’s radar since May 2020, with two EPs and one album reviewed by different journalists who offered opinions of the highest praise. When Bowles speaks of “recontextualizing fragments of our own real-world mythologies,” this is not clobbering the audience with complexity.

It is creating a world you want to spend time in. 

“I hope that our playing on this record inspires people to kind of take up playing in that way,” Bowles says. “It’s something that’s not so common now, but when you get into it, it’s just so beautiful.”

You can read more about Crown Lands at https://www.metaltalk.net/tag/crown-lands.

Fearless

1. Starlifter: Fearless Pt. II 
2. Dreamer Of The Dawn 
3. The Shadow
4. Right Way Back 
5. Context: Fearless Pt. I 
6. Reflections 
7. Penny 
8. Lady Of The Lake 
9. Citadel

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