Crown The Empire - The Resistance: Rise of the Runaways (Album Review)
The Resistance: Rise of the Runaways is the second studio album by Texas metalcore outfit Crown the Empire released July 22nd via Rise Records. The album peaked at #3 on the iTunes album chart and #1 on the iTunes rock chart! The album consists of 3 Acts, much like a play; it opens with ‘Call to Arms (Act I)’, that act consists of tracks 1-4 which has an almost post apocalyptic or dystopian feel. Act 2 begins at track 5 ‘The Wolves of Paris’ which is a haunting spoken track; Act 2 continues on until track 9 which begins Act 3 with ‘Sattellites’ which is melodic and smooth, this final Act finishes out the album. The album ends (to me) with the latter half of ‘Phoenix Reborn’ as the main character dies and receives a 21 gun salute which then brings us to the ending track ‘Johnny’s Revenge’ (perhaps Johnny is the main character in this thrilling mini-saga?). Seemingly, Johnny went to heaven...HA just kidding! Johnny and his band of misfits actually ended up in Hell, but on the bright side they overthrew the Dark Overlord Satan. And they all lives happily ever after, or not, because happy endings are overrated! There are 3 stand out tracks to me on this album, the first two being the openings to Acts 1 and 2. ‘Call to Arms’ really sets the stage for everything and gives you a feel for what you’re in for, and ‘The Wolves of Paris’ is just downright creepy! The third is the closing track, ‘Johnny’s Revenge’, as someone who isn’t a fan of happy endings all the time, this really did it for me. I could be wrong, but I believe this album could be considered a rock opera. I’d love to see a visual adaptation, much like what was done with Green Day’s American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown which was made into a stage play. I just feel like a visual adaptation of the entire story would be extremely badass.
Rating: 5/5 no questions asked. If I could go higher I would. This album combined almost everything that I love and made it amazing. I love rock operas, I love it when they’re dark, futuristic, and don’t have a happy ending (Repo! the Genetic Opera anyone?). And just they way the whole thing was put together written and produced blew me away. They also performed a few new tracks at Warped Tour as well which made me love them even MORE because they put on such an amazing set! If you haven’t listened to this album yet, why not? You need to, right now, no excuses. I could go on for days about this! If you haven’t yet purchased their album be sure to pick it up on iTunes!
