With the ink still drying on a record deal with InsideOutMusic, Crown Lands duo vocalist and drummer Cody Bowles and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Comeau have begun work on their third album. In the meantime, a pair of ambitious instrumental albums, Ritual I & Ritual II, are set for release.
These two Ritual albums are a complex tapestry of music, unlike anything Crown Lands have created before. Layered with drums, synths, and various percussion, you can experience Ritual I here.
“The Ritual project highlights a completely different side of Crown Lands,” Kevin Comeau told us. “While the electric side of the band is full of bluster and drama, the Rituals show a more contemplative and meditative side of our music and serve as world-building albums for the main storyline of our next album.”
Crown Lands – Ritual, “world-building albums for the main storyline of our next album.”
A self-titled debut album was released in the summer of 2020. We spoke in praise of the riffs, both catchy and prog-tastic at times, the searing vocals and the passion for speaking out about topics dear to their hearts.
The White Buffalo EP would follow, a magical masterpiece, with second album Fearless released in 2023. Fearless when you get into it, it’s so beautiful.
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,” Kevin Comeau told us in 2023. “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.”
Ritual I was recorded during the uncertain period of the pandemic. With the band unable to enter the studio or tour, Bowles and Comeau looked for a creative outlet.
“I suppose this record became our act of defiance against stagnation,” Cody Bowles says now, “in a time when so many familiar lights around us flickered out in the deafening silence. It was a glimmer in our darkness,”
“Ritual I was made during a tumultuous time in our lives, alongside producer Justin Meli in our little B Room at Chalet Recording Studios. It served as a reprieve from the upending haze of the pandemic, far from the high-pressure studio sessions that typically accompanied the pursuit of our mainstream sound.”
The future for the band is bright. “Crown Lands are one of the most exciting young bands in our genre,” InsideOutMusic label-head Thomas Waber said, “and we are proud and excited to be releasing their new albums. We see a very bright future for these young Canadians.”
With Ritual, although it might be experienced as an offshoot for the band, Cody Bowles says the album “hopes to illustrate our primal connectedness to the natural world, and suggests a way to listen to that inner awareness that watches all without doing.
“In easing one’s mind and stilling the thoughts and chatter when listening to this record, we strive to catalyze a deeper connectedness to the present moment that is as peaceful as it is beautiful.”
The stunning artwork for both Ritual releases was created by Justyna Koziczak and perfectly sets the mood for hoe Crown Lands felt liberated to be so free with our creativity. “It was the next logical step for Kev and I,” Bowles says, “both in musicality and in scope. More textures, more strings, more complexity.
“We hope you enjoy these two journeys into unknown realms and uncover the mysteries of the Ritual for yourself.”
You can find coverage of Crown Lands earlier music at MetalTalk by clicking here. To hear Ritual I, visit crownlandsmusic.lnk.to/RitualOne.
The post
Crown Lands Unveil Ritual I & II Marking New Chapter With InsideOutMusic first appeared on
MetalTalk - Heavy Metal News, Reviews and Interviews.
