{"id":4977,"date":"2016-08-03T12:12:32","date_gmt":"2016-08-03T12:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-crown-the-empire-retrograde\/"},"modified":"2018-03-21T21:20:41","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T21:20:41","slug":"album-review-crown-the-empire-retrograde","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-crown-the-empire-retrograde\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Crown The Empire – Retrograde"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/figure>\n

There’s no denying the appeal of Crown The Empire<\/b>; whatever it is getting the kids excited nowadays, these five guys from Texas have it in spades. They are already big, boasting over a million followers on Facebook, and on the strength of ‘Retrograde’<\/i>, the all important third LP, there’s nothing to stop them becoming massive.<\/p>\n

Right from the word go, on the sinister lullaby soft intro of ‘SK-68’<\/i> there is a kind of sci-fi feel to this record. It’s in the song titles and the snatches of movie dialogue preceding the swirling riffs of ‘Are You Coming With Me?’<\/i> and in the mid-section of the killer ‘Hologram’<\/i>. Talk about a winning tune! It starts sedately, but the percussion soon builds to a massive hook with the tried and tested rhetorical question trick – “Do you know who I am?”<\/i> It has a real driving pop feel, but the dual vocal attack of Andy Leo and David Escamilla adds some muscle – throw in an epically powerful finale and it doesn’t get much better than this. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

My personal preference is for their harder-edged material like the badass heavy slow boiler of ‘Lucky Us’<\/i> and the attacking ‘Zero’<\/i> with its industrial feel and hectic arrangement. However, their appeal probably lies in the more radio friendly tracks like the easy pop rock of ‘Signs of Life’<\/i> and the well worn marching melody of ‘Weight of the World’<\/i>. Even so, they always manage to offset their pop sensibilities with some hardcore vocals or industrial textures to keep it powerful.<\/p>\n

To be frank, there’s not a bad track on ‘Retrograde’<\/i> and there’s plenty of variety to keep it interesting, whether it’s the sinister instrumental of ‘The Fear is Real’<\/i> or the dark ballad ‘Oxygen’<\/i>. It all makes for a well-balanced album with stacks of winning tunes, everything is superbly executed and they have enough experience to not overdo anything; nicely done.<\/p>\n

4.5\/5<\/p>\n

‘Retrograde’<\/em> by Crown The Empire<\/strong> is out now on Rise Records<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Crown The Empire<\/strong> links: Facebook<\/a>|Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n

Words by Edward Layland (@EdwardLayland<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s no denying the appeal of Crown The Empire; whatever it is getting the kids excited nowadays, these five guys from Texas have it in spades. They are already big, boasting over a million followers on Facebook, and on the strength of ‘Retrograde’, the all important third LP, there’s nothing to stop them becoming massive. 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