Black Crown Initiate is back, and seemingly is down to a duo of members that quit the band in 2022. Black Crown Initiate guitarist Andy Thomas and bassist Nick Shaw took to Instagram to announce there would be more new music from the group starting hopefully later this year. It's not clear who else is currently in the band, but hey – we'll take any music that follows up the band's 2020 album Violent Portraits of Doomed Escape.
"Hello everyone! It's been awhile, and we are sure that a lot has changed for you, just as it has for us. We wanted to let you all know that, starting later this year, we will be putting out music when time permits," wrote Black Crown Initiate in their statement.
"As some of you may know, Andy is now a full-time member of Rivers of Nihil, and Nick has settled down and started a beautiful little family. Amidst all that, we've decided that we miss making tunes together in the spirit of how it all started: just for us to enjoy. If this sounds appealing to you, keep your eyes peeled."
Thomas opened up about quitting Black Crown Initiate during a 2022 interview, saying that releasing Violent Portraits of Doomed Escape in 2020 and not being able to tour on it, and the label essentially asking for another record, really didn't help his view of things at the time.
"There were a few times over the past few years where I'd mentioned to [James] that I was kind of burnt out on the whole thing. Especially after putting out that last album during COVID. It's just like kicking yourself in the dick. You work on this thing for two years and then release it and you can't tour and your record label tells you 'oh don't worry, just put out another one. This is a freebie. Don't worry about how it performs. It's during COVID.' It was just like, well maybe I don't want to do and pour my heart out again the way that I just did [for that record]."
