Take a look around – alternative music in 2023 is, at its best, rather extraordinary, isn’t it? In one corner, Spiritbox are sending jaws to the floor with their hefty riffs and Courtney LaPlante’s astoundingly versatile vocals. Lorna Shore have created viral gold out of Will Ramos making sounds it should theoretically not be possible for humans to make. And, love them or hate them, Sleep Token’s audacity to segue from black metal to funk was inspired. The bar for rock and metal is moving higher and higher, and compared to the boundary breaking talent at the forefront of our world, relying on the same old formulas just won’t cut it anymore. That is the trap Crown The Empire fall into on their fifth album. There’s not a great deal here that you won’t have heard somewhe...
