Artist Spotlight: Crown of Mercy

By Gerard W. Medicis

Formed in 2005, Crown of Mercy is a Christian progressive rock/metal band from Scottsburg, Indiana.  Their first self-produced and released CD, “New Beginnings” made its debut on July 28, 2007.  Following in the tradition of many prog rock bands before them, New Beginnings is a concept album. 

According to bassist/backing vocalist, Mike Reed, “The story runs through “The Fall” down to “Day of Completion”.  The story is about a man who thinks he has it all, suffers tragedy and through this is introduced to the Word and begins to understand the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  The last song, “There and Back Again” stands apart from the concept theme and on its own, providing a fitting ending to the work.

When the CD first arrived, I was immediately struck by C.O.M’s attention to detail.  The front cover is a monochrome picture of cross tombstones in a graveyard contrasted with the “New Beginnings” title in green. This “Gospel in the details” runs throughout the album, in lyrical content, production and sometimes subtle musical enhancements.  

The powerful opening track, “The Fall,” showcases the band’s songcraft and musical “chops”.  Featured are searing harmony and solo guitar sections (courtesy of lead guitarist, Dirk Werner), and rock anthem chorus, “I don’t understand, where did I go wrong?  Held it in my hands.  I thought I was strong.”  Here and elsewhere in the CD, Crown of Mercy reminds me of one of their influences, Queensryche.  This is especially true in singer/rhythm guitarist, Rick Johnson’s at times striking resemblance, to QR’s Geoff Tate, in vocal melodies, phrasing and style (no small feat given Tate’s well-known skill and wide vocal range).

These musicians are proficient at their respective instruments while keeping their technical skills “on a leash” to what is needed in each song; somewhat of a rarity in the prog metal genre.  My favorite example of this is bassist Reed’s harmonics intro (tap harmonics Mike?) in the song, “Mercy.”  Even drummer and newcomer, Jeremy Richardson, gives a strong (and at times, technical) performance, while keeping a solid groove throughout the CD (according to their myspace page, www.myspace.com/crownofmercy Johnson, Reed and Werner were formerly together in the hard rock group, Diamond Edge).
 
Between some of the tracks are creative touches like a news broadcast and spoken dialogue, which help keep the theme moving and connected.  Other standout tracks include, “Follow the Light,” “The Gift,” “Holy” and “God is Real”.  At the time of this writing, “God is Real” and “The Fall” could be heard in their entirety on the band’s myspace page.         

For any band to produce a concept album as their debut effort, the task can only be called ambitious and courageous.  After “New Beginnings,” fans of Christian progressive metal will soon be hungry for Crown of Mercy’s sophomore release.  So fellas, what tasty, meaty and crunchy meal are you cookin’ up for us next?

ENDNOTES:

Gerard’s Very-Abridged Prog Metal Primer (For those not “in the know”) Progressive rock/metal is what my bandmates and I used to call “thinking man’s metal” (or in PC-speak, “thinking person’s metal”).  Some would argue that this style of music developed out of the psychedelic or “Acid Rock”, instrumental and experimental music of the mid to late 1960’s and 1970’s.  Prog metal has never been 3-chord, 4/4 time signature/simple drum beat music with surface lyrics.  Songs in this genre are carefully crafted.

The main characteristics included time and key signature changes or modulations (sometimes several times per song), intricate guitar solos and harmonies, changing and complex percussion rhythms and instrumental interludes.  Songs tend to be more than 5 minutes long.  The lyrical message is not generally readily apparent, but once understood, conveys some deeper meaning or moral.  Although prog metal has never received much mainstream radio airplay, these bands develop a devoted fan base (or, “cult following”).  Progressive metal gives us something to chew on (My intent is not to disrespect other genres of music, many of which I regularly enjoy and appreciate.  It just so happens that progressive rock and metal is what I cut my proverbial teeth on, as a developing musician).

Any progressive metal band worth their sodium chloride would eventually produce a concept album.  This would be a work where the story spanned several songs, or sometimes the complete CD.  Some of the best examples of this include, “2112” and “Hemispheres” by Canadian power-trio, Rush, and Queensryche’s “Operation: Mindcrime”.  80’s Christian metal band, Sacred Warrior, gave us “Wicked Generation” along these same lines.  Often, the concept album would prove to be the band’s crowning achievement.  Prog metal bands would also borrow from classic literature or poetry for their lyrical content—“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Iron Maiden is a good example.  

About the Author:
Gerard Medicis has had a love of music since childhood.  Learning to play the drums in 7th grade and later adding guitar and electric bass, he played in several cover bands before his Christian conversion at age 20.  Since then he has written music and played primarily guitar for various local Christian alternative and rock bands.  Currently, he plays guitar for the hard rock band, “M.L.C.” (www.myspace.com/mlctheband).  He is a social worker providing marriage, family and child counseling, in Evansville, Indiana, where he lives with his beautiful wife, two children and two Shetland Sheepdogs.  His passion for writing includes song lyrics, as well as writing and reviewing music for The Christian Pulse!

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