Full Blown Chaos Heavy Lies The Crown

Amazing what more time spent on songwriting can do for a band. Granted, NY's Full Blown Chaos started out as a meat'n'potatoes hardcore band and ultimately they will die as one, whenever that time emerges. With their newest and also Ferret debut, Heavy Lies The Crown, these challengers of Crowbar's long-held reputation of being the physically heaviest in metal throw a curveball that will take many for a ride they weren't expecting. When Full Blown Chaos followed up their surprise success of an album, 2004's Wake The Demons, with the Eric Rachel-produced yet somehow unfulfilling Within The Grasp of Titans, it sounded as though the band's dangerously unadorned style had finally become too watered-down for their own good. Regardless, FBC were soon back on the road for a triumphant Ozzfest stint and countless other tours to cement their reputation as unfettered road warriors, an increasingly important trait in an era of scant album sales. While road work could easily tire out and often break a band into bitter disputes and ex-member-projects, in Full Blown Chaos' case it has clearly strengthened their resolve to become heavier and, in the case of Heavy Lies The Crown, write a more impressive album than the last. Difficult as it may be to predict how many more fans they would have sucked into their lethal dance floors had this new album followed Wake The Demons instead of Within The Grasp of Titans, it should be considered by all intents and purposes not only Wake's logical follow-up in terms of songwriting effort and lyrical bravado, but also just about as close to constructing an actual metal record than these Queens heavy hooligans will ever create. If anyone thought Full Blown Chaos were done with abusing the E chord like a drug habit after Wake The Demons, and the diversity of Within The Grasp of Titans hinted strongly at that possibility, Heavy Lies The Crown erases any doubt regarding that matter. For those who still recall when old-school hardcore met old-school death metal in the mid-90's with bands like Merauder, Hatebreed, and All Out War, Full Blown Chaos have always been among the more praiseworthy members of the generation that grew from those pioneers. New arrivals to the progressive and suddenly popular segment of heavy music will find Full Blown Chaos' approach archaic and uninteresting, but this album is not intended for those elitists. And while their previous album could have admittedly been hit with the accusation of being lackluster, Heavy Lies The Crown cannot. Despite the obvious limitations of their preferred style, Full Blown Chaos exhibit a loyalty to it that so few other bands have in recent years. The band certainly could not have been added to a more authentic and appropriate tour of veteran bands pushing old styles, as they embark this Fall on a month-plus-long U.S. run with Obituary, Alabama Thunderpussy (featuring former Exhorder and Floodgate vocalist Kyle Thomas), and Hemlock. Bottom Line: Since the tough-guy ship seems to have sailed years ago, few commendable bands remain to carry the torch for those who still care. Full Blown Chaos are one of them, and Heavy Lies The Crown is proof that the band still strive to champion this long-limited style. Notable mention goes to Biohazard frontman Billy Graziadei for producing the album, as it could at least partially explain why it easily blows their previous releases out of the water. Being that his own legendary band saw their time come and go despite their most noble attempts to continue, Full Blown Chaos sound as if his veteran leadership stirred their fire the studio. Every label seems to want a chugging hardcore band that tours non-stop these days, and now Ferret got theirs. What the label now has is a band that takes the sound Hatebreed created and ups the intensity and tightness more notches than most will care to admit. At the end of the day Heavy Lies The Crown may even be a stronger album than Madball's new Ferret release Infiltrate The System, a even more impressive feat under any circumstance.