To kick off a new month at the SMS, let's finish playing catch-up on what St. Ignace, Michigan deathcore band Heavy Lies The Crown have been up to this winter! While the band mostly took December off from public updates, they did return with new videos on December 27th, starting with this video of the guys opening for Born Of Osiris at The Crofoot Ballroom in Pontiac on November 7th, which was shot by Sara LaBeau for her personal Facebook page but only shared to the band's Facebook page over a month later. Sara said that this was shot at "Greenwall Hall", which is not the name of any of the venues at the Crofoot complex. Based on photos, this is more likely The Pike Room, which is not where last year's Born Of Osiris/H.L.T.C. show took place (that was in the Vernors Room there). The video proper features the band's 2025 lineup (sans Kaycee) during a breakdown, and there's no sign of teased guest DJ Dirty6, at least from what little we see here.
Sadly, this video is both short and vertical, so we don't get the best look at the guys in action, but it's a brutal performance for what we do get, so give it a watch for yourselves below!
Later on December 27th, the band resumed posting new Facebook updates of their own, with this brief update video featuring singer Brandon West (with his dog!) announcing that their new single would be released in two weeks, and would be titled "Notions". Not only that, it was to be part of their new EP of the same name coming out in January! He talked up how "music will be flowing" now that guitarist Jaxon Massaway had caught up to learn old material and write new stuff. Two vertical teaser videos (linked here & here) followed, featuring Jaxon working at a tracking computer while "Notions" played in the background, but black-and-white interview videos (horizontal ones, no less!) followed on the 30th & 31st, where Brandon and Jaxon answered questions about "Notions", documentary style. The shorter video features Brandon addressing the tougher lines to sing on the song...
...why the "Notions" single was released next, what took the longest to get right with the song, the biggest change in the band (from "guitar shredding and... melting your face off to pure, now it's aggression, pushing", with an emphasis on being fun to play in concert), and where he sees the band heading next, with Brandon teasing the tour date lengths coming up for 2026 but not individual shows/locations. He closes by saying that you can hear the new single "literally everywhere", which I highly doubt, but that's a common complaint of mine with anyone who claims that. The longer video is embedded below, and features both Jaxon and Brandon on camera. Here, they discuss what inspired the themes of "Notions", how their creative process evolved, what was different here compared to prior albums, how "Notions" evolved in studio, what's new from prior recordings, their current mindset, ...
Brandon's headspace when recording "Notions", what they want listeners to get from the new music, one word to describe "Notions", and what they try to find when songwriting. You can tell that the guys are proud of this EP to be giving it this kind of pre-release hype, and while it would have been nice to hear from the other band members here, it sets the tone well and gives some good insight without giving too much away. Check out the longer interview clip below and see more above!
On January 5th, another update video from "Brando here" sees him walking home from practice at night while hyping up "Notions" and its release in "two weeks", and how he hoped everyone would like it. Three days later, Brandon updated fans as to their first shows of 2026 via this video, which will see them on a four show loop in the Lower Peninsula, and he teased more about the bands and locations in this video from January 14th. The shows were fully detailed in this post on the 19th, which will see them rock venues in Bay City, Chesterfield, Battle Creek, and Grand Rapids from March 5th-8th (the closest of the four to here is Bay City, just under 4 hours south of the Soo). All four shows will see H.L.T.C. playing alongside Detroit metalcore band Nothing After This, whose guitarist Rob Vandewiele filled in on bass with Heavy for their most recent shows in mid-November, and is expected to do so again for this run.
We'll detail more on what this means re: Heavy Lies The Crown's full lineup when we next talk about them, as there's too much to cover in one post, but we'll go over the release of the "Notions" EP and their 2026 lineup when we next look at the band on the SMS! For now, give Brandon's update video from January 8th a watch below, and we'll pick things back up on the 14th to talk about "Notions" proper! Thanks everyone!
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