CROWN LANDS
Apocalypse
InsideOut Music

If you’re a fan of the RUSH’s classic ‘2112’ to ‘Moving Pictures’ period – and if you’re not, for shame – fellow Canadians CROWN LANDS should be right up your alley. The Oshawa, Ontario-based duo has the same penchant for combining progressive sprawl and instrumental dexterity, heady plotlines and thematics, crafty songwriting and anthemic catchiness that made its Toronto-based peers legends. Also, the divisive balls-in-a-vice yowling. More on that in a bit.

CROWN LANDS paid homage to RUSH on 2023’s ‘Fearless’ with the elaborate “Context: Fearless Pt. I” and its myriad sonic touchpoints. While CROWN LANDS remains somewhat under the radar, that is changing as it racks up Juno Award nominations in Canada, picks up higher profile tours and continues to crank out new music via singles, EPs or full lengths at comparatively furious clip.

The duo’s fourth-ish album ‘Apocalypse’ follows the two-part, mostly instrumental ‘Ritual’ package from just last summer, which was a bit of a departure. ‘Apocalypse,’ however, harks back to, or rather picks up, the narrative thread and concept album presentation of the rather massive ‘Fearless.’ While still quite epic, it is tidier and a bit easier to digest, trimming 15 minutes from the nearly hour-long runtime of ‘Fearless’ and concluding with the most monumental track instead of leading off with it.

‘Apocalypse’ is no less dramatic, with a storyline that serves as a prequel to the dystopian sci-fi universe CROWN LANDS explored on ‘Fearless.’ Here, it boasts a ‘2112‘/’Star Wars’-like menace with its villainous main character Blackstar and fascistic regime “The Syndicate,” only with dragon riders and other fantasy tropes. And as it launches with the traditional short intro “Proclamation I,” its orchestral swells let you know a journey is afoot.

But much of the rest of Side A, as it were, lays off a lot of the more obvious sonic devices – segues and the like – instead offering a clutch of buoyant rockers that could easily stand on their own were it not for the unifying storyline. The chunky “Foot Soldiers of the Syndicate” is rather ominous in its “apocalyptic waves will form” prophesizing. The acoustic guitars and chimes that open “Through The Looking Glass” are eerily similar to RUSH’s “Something For Nothing” before it grows more expansive as its wispy verses give way to soaring choruses and Cody Bowles’ helium-huffing “upon the dragon’s wings we fly” howls.

“Blackstar” is a lively, up-tempo, straight forward hard rocker punctuated by nifty bass runs and towering choruses. “The Fall” offers much the same, with more of a martial tempo, but its “hear them closing in” dread loses something in the Michael Jackson-like “woos and whoops” vocal flourishes that I found rather grating. But redemption is quick with the melancholia of “The Revenants I” where mostly Spartan acoustic guitar/strings/flute instrumentation is graced by more soulful, and far less keening, vocalizing.

All of this sets the stage for the titanic finale that is the title track, or Side B. The 19-minute, dozen-or-so-part magnum opus travels all over the place but ultimately ends with more of a whimper than a bang. If you can imagine “Cygnus X-1” and “La Villa Strangiato” mashed up with “Bohemian Rhapsody,” you’ll have some idea of what “Apocalypse” has to offer.

Here, the duo sounds more like an army with boisterous, gang-like chants and lots of vocal interplay, super-techy jams dodging and parrying with breathy synths and flutes, crunching heaviness, and rocket effects and space motifs. But instead of delivering an “apocalyptic” crescendo worthy of the title to wrap up the song – and this chapter of the tale – ‘Apocalypse’ merely drifts off, which is a bit of a let-down.

Despite everything that is going on, and all it has to offer, how folks react to ‘Apocalypse’ is likely to come down to how they feel about Bowles’ singing. As was the case with Geddy Lee back in the day – along with GRETA VAN FLEET’s Josh Kiszka, TRIUMPH’s Rik Emmett, etc. – the reedy, upper register histrionics can be love it or hate it proposition, and a deal-breaker for some. While I generally found Bowles’ performance effective, admirable and at times spectacular, there certainly are some dog whistle moments here, as mentioned earlier.

Get past that and there is much to like with ‘Apocalypse.’ CROWN LANDS paints a vivid picture with the album’s fantastical plot line and presents it with panache while not going too overboard with proggy indulgences. Indeed, much of ‘Apocalypse’ is surprisingly listener friendly as the duo finds a comfortable middle ground between catchiness and craftiness. The Hieronymus Bosch-like cover art is pretty awesome too.

3.5 Out Of 5.0