King Loses Crown-You Can't Escape

Self-Released
2013

In light of Sunday night's "event" it might be a source of contention for some people, but this 3-piece act hails from San Francisco. Don't hold that against them though. King Loses Crown is made up musicians who, in their spare time, also run their own individual companies that are focused on graphic, web and sound design. With that knowledge having now been firmly planted  in your minds (hopefully replacing the fact that these three live in the city that gave us the 49ers) it might not surprise you as much to find out that the band has an electronic element to their sound. Kent Carter (vocals, bass and synth) and Michael Cobra (vocals and guitar) formed the band over a shared desire to combine "their love of anthemic punk rock and electronic dance music". To that end the pair eventually found drummer Sander Leech, took a year a year to write as much music as humanly possible, and ended up with "You Can't Escape". This San Francisco trio ended up with a staggering 42! different tracks to choose from before picking the best cuts possible for this EP. Self-produced by King Loses Crown, with mastering duties handled by John Cuniberti (known for working with the Dead Kennedys of all acts!), the EP's tracks cover a variety of subject matter. As Michael Cobra put it: "All of the songs deal with a sense of urgency that the world we live in, the lives we lead and the technology we create could easily bite us back." Meanwhile Kent Carter followed that up with this (in regards to the title track) : "It's a reaction to feeling trapped. It’s not meant as a declaration, but a challenge to people." That's good to hear because I'm not so sure I want to escape! Or at least when it comes to this EP. These three musicians merge punk/post-punk (Discharge, Killing Joke, Gang Of Four, Big Black) with industrial music/industrial metal (Ministry, Skinny Puppy, KMFDM) before stopping to, ever so briefly,  inhale the dark essence of Depeche Mode. While this trio is "more machine now then man" there's still the unmistakable feeling of human misery to be found on tracks like "Let This Be A Warning" and "My Revenge" (the album's first single). With only 6 tracks the experience is over before it's ever really begun, but the amount of energy that has been scrunched into such a short EP is nothing short of mind boggling!