In light of a big recent announcement from St. Ignace, Michigan deathcore band Heavy Lies The Crown, we might as well continue playing catch-up on their recent activity, so what have Brandon and crew been up to since we left off with their mid-November concerts downstate? On November 17th, frontman Brandon West starred in this vertical update video from their Facebook page where he noted the they filmed a lot of concert footage and "studio updates" during the previous weekend's concerts, and teased that "we're gonna start, like, a vlog thing, or try" in an attempt to post and keep up with recent video footage. If that bears out, it will be neat to see everything! On November 21st, they asked fsns who they'd like to see H.L.T.C. play shows with, so if you have any ideas, head to that post! The following day, they claimed to be "taking our live performances to the next level".
Given their place in the Upper Peninsula, they noted that "we sometimes feel a bit isolated, but it's also what makes us unique". With the vast majority of their concerts being on the road, they do stand out to audiences afar! They teased possibly filming their practice for social media that day, and that bore out on November 23rd when they began uploading GoPro videos from "The Skely house". The short clips feature Brandon, Jaxon, and Blaze performing on camera (no Christian or Kaycee), and you can watch the shorter second one here, and the longer first one below. The biggest reveal here beyond the song-in-progress is that Brandon shaved his beard before this jam session, though it grew back by the next time we saw him on camera. He was filming the videos in the first place, so he isn't a focus, but it is odd to see him clean shaven. What we hear doesn't sound bad at all, so give these a watch above & below!
On November 24th, the band shared videos from their the pop-up concert with four other bands at the Influence The Band Headquarters in Taylor (outside of Detroit) ten days prior, which devolved into an open jam featuring intermixing of band members for individual songs. Obviously only partially local now, but click here to watch what I.H.Q. got on camera, and see where Brandon, Jaxon, and Kaycee fit in! Four days later, the band posted a brand new original song onto major streaming services named "Road To Detroit", which is their fifth single to date that isn't on their prior albums (joining "These Walls", "Marble Skin", "Shame", and "Happy Fun Fun"). The guys wrote this on a trip on the I-75 towards one of their concerts at The Sanctuary in Hamtramck (just outside of Detroit), and it is "probably the most meaningful song" of theirs so far. I'll hold comment pending our review of their next release, but give it a listen!
Interestingly, Brandon starred in this video for the band's new YouTube channel where he sings along to the studio track while using a banana as a "microphone". Fun little diversion, but if I was Brandon, I'd have used an instrumental version of the song (it's his own band's song, he must have access to one) so he wasn't double tracking with himself. In their last update in November 2025, they posted this video of guitarist/ex-drummer Jaxon Massaway tracking a new original song's breakdown at a computer. In the comments, he noted that "they ain't ready for this one", so if you say that, you're obviously building anticipation for a reason! No idea why it had to be black & white, but check out this teaser below!
Heavy Lies The Crown took most of December off from new band updates, only resurfacing with brand new content after Christmas, so we'll pick things back up there next time as we continue making up lost ground! Sty tuned for more from them and other local bands on the site soon! Thanks everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment