Video game and D & D-obsessed,  Canadian husband and wife duo, Crown of Madness is back to follow up their enjoyable 2022 EP, The Void, and lay the final piece of groundwork for their upcoming full-length album.

Continuing the Ulcerate-styled artful dissonance they created on The Void, Elemental Binding shows a duo in lockstep with their chosen sound and influences albeit with a little more melody and pacing.

The churning, discordance is still present in spades, and Summer Schneider again delivers her impressive bellows with Connor Gordon doing everything else, including the clean, hefty production. The four songs consist of atonal, shifty blasts, and more controlled lurching moments.

But as I mentioned earlier, said there seems to be a little more… melody? in this effort just listen to the opening number “Immortal Eyes”,  ‘Wrenching Nostalgia” or “Vile Sun”. It’s still heavily Ulcerate and Artificial Brain-influenced but with a little sense of almost somber mood and harmony lurking under the miasmal churn, of which there is plenty on “Roots, Limb and Sky”.

The only thing missing on Elemental Binding is the piano that was used on “Pale” and “False God’s Hymn” from The Void to great effect, but this is still a cool little self-released project, and I’m looking forward to the impending full-length. I’m just hoping it’s not simply the songs from the 2 EPs re-released on one release.

[Visit the band's website]

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