Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Heavy Lies The Crown Video Showcase!! (Part 2)

Last month was our busiest month in post count since July 2017, which I hope is helping pass the time during the ongoing stay-at-home orders and self isolation, and fingers crossed, we'll have more good news to report in April! As such, we're kicking off this month with our second Heavy Lies The Crown video showcase, as we finally catch up with the St. Ignace, Michigan progressive metal band's rapid video uploads on their Facebook page over the the first third of the year! One of the most substantial remaining videos comes from this 71 minute long live-stream on February 19th, which features Ted, Nathan, and Danny in studio tracking new original material on the computer for their teased full length album, which fans will have seen similar videos of twice before. They don't have as much interaction with the camera here compared to prior live-streams, but it's almost just as well, given that it was filmed in the vertical camera angle AND sideways.

Not ideal, especially when the camera was visibly flipped to normal and back at the start! That said, the new music sound promising, and it'll be very interesting to hear how the full album sounds upon release! Just to remind concerned viewers, this was filmed last month, before widespread social distancing recommendations were made in Michigan. Give it a look below!



Next up, we have this live concert video of Heavy Lies The Crown from three days later, as also live-streamed on their Facebook page! This comes from their last show before Michigan's concert calendar ground to a halt, when they were the opening act at Eastpointe deathcore band Buried With Sincerity's farewell show at the Hot Rock Sports Bar in Warren (a half hour north of Detroit). Yes, another downstate concert, but it's worth noting that drummer Cale Krist lives in the Lower Peninsula too, which may be a factor in that regard. You get the last 18 minutes of their set here, plus 6 minutes of mingling and teardown at the end. It is cool to see H.L.T.C. in concert like this, and there are definitely familiar songs on offer, but the video quality leaves a lot to be desired. Not only are Brandon's vocals nearly inaudible, but the video was (again) uploaded sideways on the vertical angle. Adding to that, the camera was placed too high, so you only see Cale' hands, Ted's head, and the rest of the band from the shoulders up, at best.

I'm not trying to nitpick, but alas, I have to be honest, as the overall video quality isn't ideal, but fans in Warren definitely got the full experience! Who knows when we'll see Heavy Lies The Crown in concert again given what's going on in the world today, but the music more than holds up, so give this live stream a look below as well, and hopefully they're back on stage soon!



Heavy Lies The Crown's other Facebook videos posted since last month have been short teaser clips, often with a humorous slant, and Snapchat-style text captions were overlaid on a couple of them, like this 20 second video embedded below of "geeetttarist" Nathan Switzer tracking for one of their new songs. The caption tells you all you need to know regarding where the album was as of March 4th, and as of a text posting on their Facebook page 8 days later, the band revealed that they had finished recording instrument tracks for the album, with vocal tracking to begin next, as well as a planned series of "live session" videos. Unfortunately, social distancing and Michigan's stay-at-home order may have put a delay on all that, given the lack of updates on either in the past couple of weeks, but the guys are definitely over the hump for the recordings. Check out more videos & updates from their camp above and below!



We'll close today by moving over to Heavy Lies The Crown's brand new YouTube channel, whose first video went up last week, and it features the aforementioned Nathan Switzer playing "Knucklebutter" from their "Scatter Brain" EP. Of course, he joined the band after that EP was finished recording, so this gives us a look at how he would have factored on this song. The video is shot from multiple cameras, and Nathan definitely knows this song well, so fans will want to check out this proficient playthrough a look below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

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