For today's SMS post, let's return to the world of St. Ignace metalcore band Heavy Lies The Crown, so what have they been up to since we last left off with them in early February? Back on February 6th, the guys posted a "Reel" on their Facebook page of them playing at last August's second annual 2nd Street Music Festival in their hometown (the January "Reel" alluded to in our last H.L.T.C. post was not from that event, my apologies). Short, vertical, unembeddable, and dark, but it captures some ferocious energy while it lasts, and Brandon's vocals really come across as American Head Charge-y here! Later that day, the guys announced another new downstate gig, which would take them to Battle Creek (5 hours due south of the Soo) on March 22nd, where they and three other bands opened for Wisconsin groove metal band Squidhammer at Feed Them, a Michigan Metal Fest-promoted "heavy metal food drive" at The Music Factory there.
Attendees got discounts for bringing in non-perishable food items for the cause, which is great to see! The following day, Heavy (as Brandon often calls them in announcement videos) announced that they'd be returning to The Delft Theater in Escanaba on April 19th for "The Invasion Of 420" (well, the show will end on the 20th!) Eight bands are scheduled to take the stage for this one, including Hannahville metal band Ghidora, who played at the 2nd Street Festival last year. Keep an eye out for coverage of public fallout from these two shows soon! On February 8th, H.L.T.C. asked fans if they'd be interested in buying a "Rat King"-themed t-shirt, a'la their song of the game name, while two days later, they teased that they were working on a new single in studio. Over the next two days, they shared four new videos from their set at at Fight Breast Cancer With Music in Escanaba back in October, so what can you see from The Delft Theater therein?
One is another "Reel" featuring more distant raw footage of Heavy Lies The Crown's set (Kaycee is completely obscured at this angle), and while solidly brutal, it is a short clip, let alone a horizontal video forcibly pillarboxed into vertical dimensions. Another "Reel" has photos from the gig, but the audio is the studio version of "Time Diffuser". The other two are actual embeddable videos, including this still-vertical clip of the guys improvising a section of music that night, with Blaze's drumming arguably being the star of the show there. Embedded below is the only horizontal clip of the four, and here, the camera is nicely zoomed in to capture the band rocking out, hopefully not burning anything to the ground despite the lyrics! While none of these are that long, it's good to see some more videos from the Escanaba show last fall (even if they all showed up six months later), so check these out above & below!
On February 10th, H.L.T.C. revealed that they now have official band logo stickers (clear and gold ones), and while not as big as they were hoping, to message them if you wanted any. Four days later, they also asked fans on Facebook what merchandise ideas in general that they had, and on February 20th, they again floated the possibility of expanding this year's 2nd Street Music Festival in St. Ignace to two days (one for local bands, one for metal bands that aren't necessarily local), and to offer suggestions for both categories. Also that day, they noted they were "working on some stuff" in this "Reel" featuring the monitor of a tracking computer, which would line up with their February 10th post hinting that they were working on a new single. Finally, here's a new video from singer Brandon West on February 22nd, where he lamented that musicians are treated like pirates nowadays.
Basically, bands are expected to do anything big now, but it costs money to tour and record and all that, while promoters are criticized for who they do/don't bring in when that costs too. It's not directly about Heavy Lies The Crown, but you get the sense that Brandon is talking from experience about his frustrations with expectations from certain fans and observers. No solutions are offered, beyond perhaps becoming a pirate, but you don't see a lot of local musicians vent like this, and it could be a good talking point, if not a reminder that this all isn't as easy at it seems. Check it out below!
That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the SMS soon! Thanks everyone!
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