Crown The Empire | zachlogic

My Favorite Band-Crown The Empire

HI! Today, I would like to talk about a band that I really love. Crown The Empire-is a metalcore/screemo band that I have been listening to for not even a year yet. But quickly they became one of my favorite bands. And in this article I would like to talk about something that Crown The Empire does, that I really think is amazing. Crown The Empire tells stories with their music. Now, I know, all songs are meant to tell some kind of story or at least convey an emotion. Of course, I know this. But what I mean, is that that they literally have complete story arcs and characters and dialougue and everything. It's pretty amazing. A good example is The Resistence: Rise of the Runaways-one of their newest albums. Every single song is part of the story. And I would like to tell you about this story, and the two others that they have. (Keep in mind that this is my interpretation of the songs and albums.)

Oh, Catastrophe and The Fallout

One of Crown The Empire's stories is called The Fallout. This story is really the entire Fallout album, but for me, I like this story being told through just the first two songs on said album: Oh, Catastrophe and The Fallout.

In Oh, Catastrophe, we are introduced to two crime bosses that are constantly at war. In the music videos, the two sides are depicted as black and white armies. Next, in The Fallout, we are introduced to two younger people, one from the white armie and one from the black armie. They are in love. So of course, they don't want to fight the opposite armie. But they can do nothing to stop the oncoming war. The white and black armies wipe eachother out, few surviving. But among these few are the two lovers.

Admittedly, this is my least favorite of the stories, but the music is incredible.

Rise of the Runaways is about a group of rebels (runaways) that opposes the force of the Raven (a powerful leader intent on taking away freedom and siezing control of the world) and his mercenaries-the Scarecrows.

The Resistence: Rise of the Runaways

Part I

Call To Arms introduces us to this world. It starts out with a deep voice over speaker phones talking to all citezens of earth, telling us that this is the "New Fallout". The next song is Initiation. This song shows a character who is being initiated and training into the Resistence. But during this, the Risistence hiding is attacked by Scarecrows. The runaways defeat the screcrows, slaughtering them all. Next on the album is Millenia. Millenia is focused on the new recrute's thoughts. "I've been gone from this world for what seems like millenia. Looking for nothing short of a miracle. I only ever wanted to come home. Please won't you let me go. When I have nowhere left I can runaway. Will you lie to me, tell me I'll be okay. Close my eyes and lay me in my tomb. Then pull the trigger and send me home." Next is Machines. One of my favorite songs in the story, Machines is the leader of the resistence, Bones, talking to the other runaways. "We must be more than just machines. So let them here our hearts." While we are hearing this, a group of runaways infiltrates a scarecrow camp. During Initiation, a member of the resistence was captured by the scarecrows and taken to be brainwashed. The runaways successfully find their lost member, and rip the device out of the back of her neck, but, in the process, Bones is shot and killed.

Part II

The Wolves of Paris is the first song in Part II. This tells about how Paris is wiped out. Nothing remains except ice, corpses and wolves. The way that this happened is never specified, but my personal favorite theory is that there was some kind of mutated disease that turned the city's inhabitents into wolves. Next is Mnstr. (Yes, Mnstr-Monster without any vowels.) This song could be viewed two ways. It could be The Wolves of Paris but from the wolves' point of view, or it could be the Runaways' reaction to the news that Paris has been wiped out. Or it could be both, I guess. After that is Second Thoughts. Second thoughts is much more straightforward than the other songs. It is from the point of view of the recruite we met in Initiation. He is having second thoughts about the operation. Weather they can win, if it will all be for nothing, but also about his fellow resistence member, who was Bones' best friend and is now the leader of the Runaways due to Bones' death. (Remember what I said about this all being my interpretation.) And lastly in Part II, is Maniacal Me. (One of my favorites). This is from Bones' frined's point of view who is going insane with his frined's death and also with him being the new leader of the Runaways. Great song.

Part III

Satellites is very simple and very powerful. It is basically about the Runaways mourning the loss of their leader and founder-Bones. The harmony at the end-oh man, tear. ;) Next is Rise of the Runaways. This is the song that the album is named after. It is a fast paced song. The runaways are preparing for the final battle with the Raven and his Scarecrows. Next is Bloodline. The runaways have arrived at the Scraecrow base and they are ready to fight. "We are the kids you'll have to hurt. The ones that never learned." "So let the battle begin." The final song in the story is The Phoenix Reborn. It is the final battle between the Scarecrows and the Resistence. Everything has led up to this. Long story short, the resistence gets stomped and all the members that didn't die in the final battle are executed by firing squad. The End.

I love this story. Yeah, shocking, right? Well if you thought that was a surprise, read my description of The Johnny Trilogy. :)

The Johnny Trilogy

Johnny Ringo: Johnny Ringo dies. He goes to hell and there, he is given the option to live again. The devil tells him that if Johnny sells his soul, he will be brought back. Johnny does it, but he was tricked. With Johnny's soul, the devil has the power to pull Johnny back to hell. He is dragged back down to hell again by the devil, where he is doomed to an eternity of suffering. "Don't ever trust the devil."

Johnny's Revenge: Johnny attempts to get revenge on the devil. He foolishly runs to where the devil's looming shadow can be seem from the slave fields. When he arrives he is confronted by a being no bigger than he is. He laughs. This was going to be easier than he thought. Johnny battles the devil and manages to get one cut on him. The devil's blood spills on the ground. Then, the being begins to transform. Its horns disappear, the fire around it dies. The being is just a man. One of the devil's slaves. The devil had used magic to make this ordinary slave look demon-like. "I've been fooled again. I've been fooled again!" The devil shows himself. He is bigger than a mountain and he tortures Johnny and banishes him to the fields. Johnny is hopeless. He walks away in shame as demons and slaves alike laugh at him.

Jhonny's Rebellion: Johnny, humiliated, bleeding and utterly defeated, gathers his power to unite every single soul in hell. They will hit the devil with everything they have. "You can't keep me trapped in this hell. I won't ever call this my tomb. The place where a soul is sent to die is the place where my purpose was found. I'm taking control of my life and I'm raising an army from hell. I'm burning this place to the ground!" The army of souls withers the devil down and Johnny finally finishes everything by killing him. And then......."I took his crown of fire and I crushed it with my hands. I came, I saw and I conquered. So did you miss me? Well here's my farewell. I'm crazier than I ever was. I'm king of the dead and the damned. I thought that this day'd never come. But why should you sinners be saved? You wouldn't be free without me. I'm your leader, your savior, your king. And I don't think that I'm ready to leave. So gather ye demons, it seems it's your day. I sin but I've paid more than ten thousand graves. And though we're the damned we're so far from alone. So let's bury the hatchet inside of their skulls." In case you didn't get that, I'll tell you what it all means: Johnny, instead of simply leaving and escaping this terrible place he's been a slave to for so long, takes up the roll as the new Satan and, with his army of the dead, launches a full scale attack on the human world.

Boooomchshs!!!! *That's the sound of my brain exploding* So yeah, that's Crown the Empire. I really love their music, and the cinematics of their sounds and stories is just so great. And, they just released a new Resistence: Deluxe Edition with two new songs expanding on the story a bit and an acoustic Millenia and a re-done Machines! Life is good. :)

Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll check them out.

If you want more articles from me then go on the "Who should write more on ZachLogic" form on the homepage and vote for Pace! Until next time.