For today's post, let's catch up on some early fall updates from St. Ignace, Michigan deathcore band Heavy Lies The Crown, so what have they been up to since September 5th? While we alluded to the release of their new single "Shame" on September 12th in our last H.L.T.C. post, we weren't technically there in the timeline to talk about the song proper. Now we are, as the song was released as planned on major streaming services, including here via their YouTube Music channel. I'll hold comment on "Shame" for now, pending our likely review of their forthcoming album next year, but the song is shorter than I realized it'd be (at just 80 seconds in length). It does give a glimpse as to their teased sonic evolution while still appealing to existing fans, with its origins outlined in this video, but "Shame" is definitely a heavy track, so give it a listen for yourselves below!
Four days prior, Heavy Lies The Crown shared this image of their tracking computer's monitor onto their Facebook page, indicating that they had just finished another new song, with thumbs-up icons plastered over it in post to conveniently cover up the song's title (for now). Then on September 13th, frontman Brandon West starred in another solo update video from his vehicle, where he asked how fans liked "Shame", noting that the song was "short & sweet" but there are longer songs ahead for the album. He also noted that he learned how to scream in a new way for this album, and "Shame" may be somewhat reworked for the album compared to this single release. Brandon also acknowledged that "we're coming into a new era" of the band, and they're looking toward developing their own sound that isn't as easy to compare to bigger bands. Bit of an abrupt video, but he talks very optimistically, so give it a watch below!
In their next video, they uploaded a clip of behind the scenes footage from the video shoot for "Jell-O" from 2023! Here's the full music video to compare. Perhaps intentionally, we only see clips of current members of the band in the 21 seconds-long runtime (so no Ted), and between Jaxon drumming and Brandon's still-long hair, that dates things alone. Unfortunately, this was shot vertically (let alone letterboxed into widescreen dimensions in post), and I have no idea why they added the strobing lighting overtop, but the orientation does accentuate that this isn't the final product, so it's more distinguished in that way. Seeing how a music video is shot like this can defeat the illusion to an extent, but it is neat seeing how things really looked for this bloody video shoot, so give things in progress a look below!
On September 20th, Brandon starred in another vertical update video, but this one is just to thank everyone for the high streaming and hit counts for them on social media and/or "Shame" in the past week. Good to see them getting positive early attention for it! Two days later, they shared this "Reel" from the Facebook page of the Muskegon-based podcast The Metal Maniacs, where hosts Jay Ingersoll & Nick Modd reacted to their 2024 single "Marble Skin". Very understated reactions, yet still very positive, and it's good to see Heavy Lies The Crown getting more kind words from the Lower Peninsula! On September 28th, perhaps teasing the "spooky surprise" alluded to earlier in the month, H.L.T.C. began a teaser campaign for a "fiery spectacle that's about to unfold", featuring a black-and-white video of a long-haired person dressed in white standing in front of a large fire.
The next two days saw black & white pictures of three people (band members?) in costumes shared to Facebook, though obviously, the band had four members at last public count. We'll close for now with this 7 seconds-long teaser from October 1st of what would seem to be a new music video shoot, featuring (I would assume) guitarist Jaxon Massaway rocking out by said fire while in costume. The song clip heard is promisingly heavy, but we'll know more on what Heavy are cooking up soon, and check out what we knew as of the start of the month above & below!
We'll pick up with Heavy Lies The Crown next with a late-September update video from Brandon and more on what they're up to this month, both with the teased new song/video and their return to the stage downstate, so stay tuned for that and more on the SMS soon! Thanks everyone!
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