When Crown The Empire first formed, their stated goal was to be heavier than other bands from the area. Considering Dallas, Texas is known for many things and hard rock isn’t necessarily one of them, it’s safe to say the high schoolers had modest ambitions in the beginning.
Over the last decade, the boys from Crown The Empire have bucked conventional wisdom of what Texas music sounds like and have proven they absolutely deserve the respect they’ve earned. These days, lead vocalist Andy Leo and Hayden Tree, who plays bass guitar and provides extreme vocals, along with lead guitarist Brandon Hoover and drummer Brent Taddie, have fine tuned their sound and continue to strike a balance between earworm-inducing melodies and metalcore madness.
When they visited Baltimore in November, it began readily apparent that Crown The Empire have fun wherever, whenever. In fact, halfway through their set, Leo informed the crowd that, just before taking the stage, Tree had gotten a new tattoo and a shop right around the corner from the venue. He then encouraged those in attendance to buy the bassist a beverage to celebrate (and possibly numb the pain). So many fans complied that, less than a song later, Tree had to kindly ask folks to stop.
The highlight of the night was when the band broke out their newest single “In Another Life.” While Spiritbox’s Courtney LaPlante was not in the building to provide her vocals, the new track had the building rocking.
