These guys from Pennsylvania have been compared to Opeth and Emperor/Ihsahn, and Meshuggah a little, and D.U. can hear the former and the latter. They have a death metal prog style, and that’s all well and good. Opeth sounds to be the major influence, owing to the long songs and blend of styles: clean guitars/vocals flowing into distortion and growling, upbeat and mellow tempos. Opeth cornered the market on that sort of mix, and it took even them a few albums to perfect it. Black Crown Initiate is talented, can play, and does write some impressive song chunks, but to ding them, they also need some time to get these chunks to blend better into songs.
They’re blasting their Song of the Crippled Bull EP at Bandcamp, so check it out for yourself. They’ve included the lyrics there.
