“Crown Of Fire” is the latest and, unfortunately, the final release by Broken Wolves, an excellent Canadian band based in Toronto. The band recently broke up, leaving this material and a highly anticipated full-length album, The Summons, as their legacy. Consisting of four incredible songs such as “I Don’t Sleep,” “Cauldron,” “Fool,” and “Crown Of Fire,” this exceptional extended play carries so many qualities that will unquestionably appeal to anyone who appreciates cleverly assembled and flawlessly performed music. Lyrically, the band continues to explore themes such as environmentalism and climate change, highly relatable issues that struck upon humankind for decades. Each composition carries storytelling lyricism that tackles all the senses, making “Crown Of Fire” a material that will immediately resonate with the crowd. Sonically, Broken Wolves explores several complementary music genres to illustrate such lush sonic imagery that serves as a perfect platform for those themes. Perhaps psychedelic rock comes to mind first, but you’ll undoubtedly notice how some of the finest properties borrowed from dark folk, folk rock, shoegaze, psych-pop, and alternative found their way into this sonic equation. Broken Wolves use all these additional sonic ingredients as more than necessary enhancements, accentuations, decorations, and other details to elevate their music to new heights while simultaneously remaining loyal to the primary sonic direction. Their music carries all those qualities that meet the trends in modern music production yet Broken Wolves infuse a subtle touch of nostalgia to spice things up. Therefore, these experimentations with different approaches and complementary styles resulted in four mesmerizing compositions that will immediately resonate with not only psychedelic rock fans but anyone who appreciates tastefully arranged and expertly performed music.
This epic sonic journey commences with “I Don’t Sleep,” a calm, soothing, relaxing, ethereal introduction to a Broken Wolves luxuriant orchestral universe. The song gradually develops from atmospheric instrumentations to a more complex, colossal slab of ear-appealing sounds. The magnificent guitar works based upon slide guitar accentuations and calm chord progressions shape a perfect backdrop for all the vocals to shine upon. The symbiosis between lead and back vocals immediately pulls the listener even deeper into the depths of the “Broken Wolves” sound. This song serves as a mantra, a meditative piece that hypnotizes you from scratch to finish. Beneath all these lush vocal and guitar maneuvers, the bass guitar rumbles with all those intricate, vividly hearable, warm-sounding notes, offering more than necessary heaviness, clarity, and depth. The superb drumming patterns keep everything in line while dictating groove and moderate tempo. “Cauldron” is a standout track where Broken Wolves showcase all their tools of the trade. With this song, the band pulls you by the collar and brings you on a journey through an expansive sonic universe worth repeating over and over again. The guitars are drenched in subtle dosages of chorus effect, so those arpeggiated chord progressions levitate around like they’re slightly twisted yet uniform enough to keep the melody intact. The rich, deep, dense, and heavy low-ends provide groove, power, and detail yet they’re also subtly implemented not to spoil the remainder of the instrumentations. The drumming is even more complex, with all those marvelous, intricate beats, breaks, accentuations, and other percussive acrobatics delivering more complexity to an already detailed song structure. Once again, those vocal dualities reign supreme, elevating everything to new heights, commanding attention, and guiding the listening apparatus from scratch to finish. The impressive vocal range seamlessly balances low, mid, and high notes with such precision and finesse, emphasizing everything Broken Wolves intended to achieve with this track.
“Fool” is coming up next, with a vividly hearable dark-folk and psych-folk ambiance that gradually evolves in a majestic hard rock chorus. It’s nearly impossible to grasp all the details in one listening, as the band fully stacked this composition with many incredible vocal, sonic, and rhythmic maneuvers. Judging by the entire song, Broken Wolves does not have any weak links. They thoroughly planned every vocal arrangement, chord progression, riff, bassline, rhythmic sequence, accentuation, detail, and nuance. While the entire song carries so many qualities that true psych-rock fans will unquestionably appreciate, the beautifully assembled chorus makes this song even more pleasant to the ears. It easily penetrates your ears and refuses to let go, long after the last notes and beats end. This epic sonic journey comes to an end with “Crown Of Fire,” another display of Broken Wolves’ tremendous creativity, talent, skills, knowledge, and experience. The band dives even deeper into psych-folk waters by delivering a comprehensive collection of themes, melodies, harmonies, and other sonic maneuvers delivered on semi-distorted guitars. In the meantime, the rhythm section supports these orchestrations with even more detailed basslines and beats while the vocals shine in the limelight with all those beautiful harmonies. This band knows how to assemble songs that will immediately resonate with the listener and “Crown Of Fire” EP vividly showcases their fascinating songwriting, composing, arranging, and producing skills. Each track carries a fresh and unique ambiance wrapping around your listening apparatus and offering a one-of-a-kind listening experience rarely heard or seen on the contemporary psych-rock scene. “Crown Of Fire” is a masterpiece you surely don’t want to miss. Head to your favorite streaming platform and check it out.
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