When Crown Lands unleashed their first two studio albums between 2020 and 2023, they were the right duo, at the right time, at the right place to carry on the Canadian progressive rock sound of Rush, and continuing where they left off. It seems like the torch had been given to them and seeing where they will go next. But now, they’re taking a little break from their Harder sound, and into the atmospheric, Kosmiche Musik approach with a Native American sound.
I’ve always had, still do, a touch of electronic music when it comes to Berlin School of Music, delving into the realms of CAN, NEU, Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel, Faust, and of course the late, great Klaus Schulze. But for the duo, they had put together a two-part EP of the Ritual on the InsideOut label. It was made during the time of the pandemic according to Cody Bowles on the Century Media website.
So, for them to move into the ambient, world music approach, it seemed interesting at first, but it gives them a clean break to prove that they are more than just a hard-rocking prog band. Listening to the two EP’s, you get a sense of the walking towards the jungle in the hottest part of the day during the summer, sweat pouring down your head, staying hydrated, and keeping up to discover new worlds, it’s quite the spiritual journey.
With synths, drums, and percussion, and Bowels’ research on West African instruments, you can see the label Spotted Peccary smiling with delight, hearing what the Canadian duo have done after finishing up their homework assignments.
Most of the time, I can tell they were listening to Popol Vuh’s score to Werner Herzog’s Aguirre: The Wrath of God and Peter Gabriel’s score to Martin Scorsese’s controversial classic The Last Temptation of Christ, for inspiration, adding in the themes of droning, middle-eastern textures, and the sense of a world gone horribly wrong in these tricky times we’re living in.
The percussion instruments on the second Ritual, add in the intensive tempo, knowing something dangerous is coming towards you. With a little twist of lemon from the latter Floyd era during The Division Bell sessions as Comeau gets his guitar all set and ready to go, honouring Gilmour’s arrangements during the band’s 1994 album. But creating the heavy environments and the terror that awaits them.
But there’s something Tom Newman about this track. It’s very much like something straight out of the Faerie Symphony album in which the duo goes in for the attack as the percussions have a ferocious vibration with some drone-out meditation to keep you calm and de-stressed until the next piece of music begins. Not to mention their appreciation of Vangelis’ score that comes to mind.
Here, in the land of parallel universes, Crown Lands have proven themselves that they are more than just a hard-rock band. They take it a step further to prove they can go beyond the prog orientation and into something electronic and something worldly.
I felt the same thing when I was listening to Blood Incantation’s 2022 release Timewave Zero where they stepped into the krautrock genre, by making a big leap from being a death metal band into the world of electronic music. And now with Crown Lands, they honour the worldly approach. And I hope they continue to do more by going back and forth from the metallic edges of the universe into the atmospheric wonders.
