Release Date: October 20th 2023. Record Label: Hummus Records. Formats: CD/DD/Vinyl
The Seven Crowns - Tracklisting
1.The Seven Sleepers
2.Faith, Hope, Love
3.Stones
4.Codex
5.The Goose and the Swan
6.The Crippled Saint
7.Silene
8.Death of the Good Men
9.The Circus
10.Walls
11.The Wheel
12.Roadburn Prologue - Live at Roadburn
13.The Crippled Saint - Live at Roadburn
14.Echoes - Live at Roadburn
15.Stones - Live at Roadburn
16.The Goose and the Swan - Live at Roadburn
17.Codex Unsealed - Live at Roadburn
18.Many Waters Cannot Drown Love - Live at Roadburn
19.The Circus - Live at Roadburn
20.The Wheel - Live at Roadburn
21.Arias from the Empty Room - Live at Roadburn
22.Walls - Live at Roadburn
Members
Jonathan Nido
Anna Sauter-McDowell
Lea Martinez
Luc Hess
Naser Sulejmani
Renaud Meichtr
Kevin Galland
Guillaume Ducommun
Review
Trounce is a band featuring the talents of members of bands such as COILGUNS, Yrre, Kruger and Etienne Machine in their ranks. The band plays an eclectic mix of Black Metal, Doom Metal, Sludge Metal, Psych Rock, Prog Rock, Shoegaze and Punk Rock on their epic debut album The Seven Crowns which is a double album. The first half is the studio recording and the second half is a full live Roadburn Performance where the band rei-magine tracks from the studio offering and include a couple of tracks not heard within the first half.
The Seven Crowns is an exhausting and emotionally charged release with Trounce moving solely into the Post-Black Metal arena with a Doomgaze sound that marches into areas of Industrial Sludgy beats and breakdowns for a record that’s never boring. If you’re a fan of the members' other bands but with a more experimental sound then Trounce will speak volumes to you.
The vocals move from clean vocals to ferocious harsh growls but still remain quite easy to fully understand. There’s a lot of sonic experimentation on this album with Trounce playing at a spectacular pitch-black pace on the albums early tracks The Seven Sleepers, “Faith, Hope, Love” and Stones making a wicked impression with the depth of different Black Metal styles that moves the songs onto the next step within this epic albums creative journey. The instrumental work can be over-digitized in places but this adds to the unsettling effect with Trounce becoming more Post-Metal focused with the synths and down-tempo mood being heard within the lyrics of each track.
Having eight members in the ranks means Trounce goes through a lot of different experimental and extreme sounds that only adds to the surreal and nightmarish quality of the whole album. Flashes of Prog Metal brutality with Crust Punk beats appear throughout the album and I even detected influences of artists such as Mike Patton, Faith No More, TOOL and Devin Townsend on the album but that’s to my untrained ear of course.
Other standout tracks on the first half of the album include: Codex, The Goose And The Swan, Death Of The Good Men, The Circus and The Wheel. As these tracks impressed me the most especially with the technical ability being played on these tracks. Some of the music is played at a thrilling breakneck pace with intense vocals to match.
The studio recording of The Seven Crowns is an epic onslaught of brutally played Blackened Post-Metal grooves with a Doomgaze atmosphere that allows Trounce to be one of the more intense and creative entities within the Post-Metal scene.
The Live At Roadburn performance captured at the 2022 edition of the legendary festival is an absolute joy to listen to if you’re a fan of live albums. As Trounce plays slightly different and re-imagined takes of the studio counterpart. The songs are perhaps more suited to the LIVE ARENA than the actual studio recording especially on tracks such as The Crippled Saint, The Goose And The Swan, Stones and Walls.
Trounce plays a couple of original tracks Many Waters Cannot Drown Love and Arias From An Empty Room which are breathtaking compositions that are perhaps my favourite part of the album. As they show a different side to Trounce especially when the more Droned Out Ambient parts appear that showcase a world-weary style of Pitch Black solitary based sounds.
Overall, The Seven Crowns is a breathtaking release that has the power to shock, confuse and entertain the sheer hell out of you in equal measure.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Mathieu for the promo.
The Seven Crowns will be available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl via Hummus Records from October 20th 2023.
Links
Facebook | BandCamp | Instagram
