Black Crown Initiate

Pennsylvania's Black Crown Initiate formed in 2012 around a punishing mixture of blackened death metal, intricate progressive metal, and aggressive metalcore. Their profile rose sharply with the 2016 release of the sophomore album Selves We Cannot Forgive, and they expanded their reach further through the 2020 album Violent Portraits of Doomed Defeat, their debut effort for Century Media.

The Reading-based group was assembled by vocalist James Dorton, guitarists and vocalists Rik Stelzpflug and Andy Thomas, bassist Nick Shaw, and drummer Jesse Beahler. Drawing from the sounds of Decapitated, Shadows Fall, Cynic, and early Opeth while also referencing the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, the band first issued the independent digital EP Song of the Crippled Bull in 2013. They then secured a deal with eOne, resulting in the 2014 full-length The Wreckage of Stars, which entered the Billboard Heatseekers chart at number 18. In February 2016 the musicians entered the studio with producer Carson Slovak to record a second album; Selves We Cannot Forgive appeared that June and became their strongest commercial performer to date.

Rik Stelzpflug exited soon after the album's release and was succeeded by former Faceless guitarist Wes Hauch. Two years later both Jesse Beahler and Hauch stepped down amicably, clearing the way for drummer Samuel Santiago and guitarist Ethan McKenna—the latter an early candidate for the position when the band was first forming. In 2020 Black Crown Initiate joined the roster of Century Media and delivered the third album Violent Portraits of Doomed Defeat.