Crown the Empire has released “Dancing with the Dead,” the band’s heaviest track to date. It is the band’s first song without clean vocals and instead features a furious, guttural exchange between vocalist Andy Leo and bassist/vocalist Hayden Tree. The accompanying music video, features a real-life chess board where the protagonist (Andy) has to physically overpower the seven deadly sins, to overthrow the clutches of the evil King (Hayden).
Stream “Dancing with the Dead” here and watch the video below.
“’Dancing with the Dead’ came about during the rock bottom phase of quarantine,” Andy Leo said. “I’d felt like my purpose had been taken, and I had fully melded into the idea of just letting myself rot. I thought that rock bottom had a definite end but it felt as if I could go as low as I’d let myself. There’s a mural of heaven we put up that covers my entire living room wall and I was thinking about the book ‘Paradise Lost’ where Lucifer said something like ‘I’d rather rule in hell than serve in heaven’ and knew that if I was doomed to be stuck in this loop then I may as well make the most of it. I was chasing after an idea of salvation that I could do nothing to reach so I decided to start building myself outward to make myself the king of the shit hole I had put myself in.”
Hayden Tree said: “This is the heaviest song we’ve released to date. I remember sitting down and thinking to myself that as a band, we’ve never released a song with zero singing in it. As a musician in the rock world you can sometimes feel like you have to play it safe. These days artists seem to be fearful of stepping out of their comfort zone and doing something other than their norm or what’s trending. I didn’t want to play it safe anymore. At this point I was listening to a lot of hardcore/metal bands I grew up on which shaped the riff and energy on the track. I remember showing the song to the band and instantly Brandon thought it was too heavy and didn’t feel that it could make it onto an album. I fought him on it because I believed this song could be something special. He finally came around and helped me and Andy write all the lyrics. Once we finished the track, it turned into one of our band’s favorite and craziest songs we’ve ever released.”
“Dancing with the Dead” follows the previously released, stand-alone single “In Another Life” featuring Courtney LaPlante of Spiritbox. The track, which dropped in August, has clocked up 2.1 million worldwide streams and 732,000 YouTube views.
Crown the Empire will hit the road as special guests on Atreyu’s upcoming “Baptize Tour.” Kicking off in Dallas, Texas, on Nov. 9, the tour will continue through 26 more U.S. cities, culminating in Santa Ana, California, on Dec. 16. The band also will play a one-off Los Angeles show, “The Battle of Los Angeles,” with Volumes and Slay Squad on Dec. 19 at 1720. All tickets and VIP packages available here.
Tour dates:
11/9 — Dallas, TX — Gas Monkey Bar And Grill
11/10 — Houston, TX — The Warehouse
11/11 — New Orleans, LA — Republic NOLA
11/13 — Daytona, FL — Welcome to Rockville
11/15 — Atlanta, GA — The Masquerade
11/16 — Charlotte, NC — The Underground
11/17 — Baltimore, MD — Rams Head Live
11/19 — Pittsburgh, PA — The Roxian
11/20 — Sayreville, NJ — Starland Ballroom
11/21 — New York, NY — Webster Hall
11/22 — Albany, NY — Empire Live
11/23 — Hartford, CT — The Webster
11/24 — Worcester, MA — The Palladium
11/26 — Detroit, MI — The Majestic
11/27 — Columbus, OH Newport Music Hall
11/30 — Cleveland, OH — The Agora
12/1 — Grand Rapids, MI — The Intersection
12/2 — Joliet, IL — The Forge
12/3 — Belvidere, IL — The Apollo Theater AC
12/4 — Minneapolis, MN — Skyway Theatre
12/6 — Kansas City, MO — The Truman
12/7 — Denver, CO — The Summit
12/9 — Salt Lake City, UT — The Depot
12/10 — Boise, ID — Knitting Factory
12/11 — Portland, OR — Roseland
12/12 — Seattle, WA — The Crocadile
12/14 — Santa Cruz, CA — The Catalyst
12/15 — San Diego, CA — House of Blues
12/16 — Santa Ana, CA — The Observatory
Leave a Reply