Crowned By Fire - Prone To Destroy

Tagged as a southern / stoner metal by some people, doom metal even by others but these dudes from Los Angeles are much more varied than that. They cross over so many different styles on this, their soon to be released full length debut "Prone To Destroy". Formed in early 2006 by vocalist John “The Impaler” Fitterer, guitarist Justin Manning, bass player Jason "Dread" Boccia and drummer JR Crampton Crowned By Fire has slowly built its reputation by doing killer intense live performances. The new album comes charging at you with the opening track "I Spit On Your Curse", a intense blur of a riff is the backbone of the song along with the double kicks coming from the drums. This is traditional metal played loud and dirty and the guitar solo is shredding, it is a infectious piece of anthemic metal right up to the fade out. "Witch In The Window" is a crunching hunk of old school heavy metal that sounds like Metallica blending with Black Label Society playing doom complete with Randy Rhodes styled guitar squeals. The song features another mind-melting guitar solo played at a accelerated pace. The vocal harmony parts hark bark to early Seattle grunge days but its much darker than anything to come out of that flannel shirt scene. The odd track out on the album comes in the form of a cover of Blue Oyster Cult's Burnin For You. A strange choice for a cover giving the content of the rest of the album but they do a version that puts the original to shame. I always have thought Burnin For You was one of B.O.C's most average songs but they bring the song up to a higher level of swaggering groove. "Get Under The Dirt" has a Sabbath meets Ozzy kind of vibe, like most tunes on the album this is a very catchy with one of those riffs that is instantly recognizable while sounding like nothing else, another great guitar solo is included to cap off a fine track. "Black Moon Shine" is a monster of a track from its haunting intro, the building Sabbath inspired riff to the very Alice In Chains sounding vocal harmonies. The song is beautifully constructed and is a big highlight on the album. "I Am The Crime" is one of the faster paced tracks on the album, played at a neck-snapping tempo for most of the song. "Vulture With A Rifle" may have the heaviest riff on the album, its angry and a snarling track with another explosive guitar solo and pummeling drums that beat you into submission. These are just some of the immediate highlights of what is a very complete piece of work. The production is top-shelf quality, the songwriting is in the pure classic vein of heavy metal, the vocals are one of the bands strong points and the lyrics are excellent. All the songs are irresistibly catchy and the blending of everything from old school metal, grunge to sludge and doom is done to perfection. Its hard to find anything not to like about "Prone To Destroy", it maybe on the generic side of metal but because of the quality of the riffing, vocals and classic in your face arrangements it gives the album a timeless quality. The entire band is on fire and i don't know how much this band rehearses but it sounds like they have worked hard to perfect their sound. This is tight, precise and extremely well executed metal that even the masses might pick up on. The band went all the way to Italy to record and master the album and maybe that is why it has such a fresh production sound, i can't explain that one. With a sound that ranges from Sabbath, Kyuss, Down, Alice In Chains, Motorhead to Corrosion Of Conformity, Crowned In Fire have thrown a pretty wide net to create a album that could and should please a lot of metal fans out there. This is also a album that while new has the ability to become a old friend very quickly. Hurry up and release it dudes. 9/10

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