05 August 2022 - 0 Comments

Crooked Royals, the Auckland NZ quintet, have dropped their blistering new single Glass Hands and partner the release up with the announcement of their new signing to 3DOT Recordings and news of their forthcoming debut album, Quarter Life Daydream, out Friday October 21 via 3DOT Recordings. Pre-order’s live now.

Crooked Royals initially bulldozed a path for Quarter Life Daydream with Copacetic, generating over half a million Spotify streams and counting. Meanwhile, brand new single Glass Hands storms out of the gate on a flurry of double bass and fret-searing lead guitar as the melodic vocals ring out.

Recorded and mixed by Zorran Mendonsa (Coridian) and mastered by George Lever (Sleep Token, Loathe, Thornhill), the single is about unmitigated passion towards a figure, whether that is a higher power, celebrity, or political figurehead. The narrative of the lyrics are sung by a person who is in absolute certainty that they are doing and acting in the interest of themselves, and in favour of the figure they are appeasing.

“The song is about a person who wants to believe in something so hard that they’ll do anything for it,” clean vocalist Christian Carstensen goes on. “We want listeners to be critical of this voice though.”

“It’s similar to when people get news from a headline on social media," adds Carstensen's raw vocal counterpart Lee Mackley. “They’ll spout the headline, but they don’t read the actual article. They just believe in it without understanding it". Ultimately, Crooked Royals ask listeners to think about why they follow this person to the letter — sometimes to a fault.

Crooked Royals unearth harmony from unpredictability. The quintet is Christian Carstensen (clean vocals), Lee Mackley (heavy vocals), Jake Andrews (guitar), Keane Gilles (drums), and Conor Lawson (bass). Infusing metalcore with moments of head-spinning off-kilter prog, alternative melodies, and even nocturnal trap R&B, the band switch lanes seamlessly and smoothly.

They bob and weave past boundaries with a deft and dynamic approach. After racking up millions of streams independently and touring with various genre heavyweights, they perfect this vision on their full-length debut album, 'Quarter Life Daydream' out through esteemed label 3DOT Recordings.

3DOT Recordings is the record label founded and curated by seminal heavy band Periphery. Formed in 2018, it is not only the outlet through which Periphery released its last album, Periphery IV: Hail Stan, but also the members' various side projects including Haunted Shores, Bulb, King Mothership, Jake Bowen and Four Seconds Ago. On top of Crooked Royals, the label has also built a diverse roster of heavy bands including Destrage, Astronoid and Infinity Shred.

With initial demos, the band caught the attention of Veil of Maya frontman Lukas Magyar, who worked with them on their 2018 debut EP, Interwine. In between supporting Northlane, Polaris, Monuments, and more, they maintained this momentum with the Rumination EP in 2019. With the onset of the global pandemic, the musicians hunkered down and penned music at a prolific pace, expanding their signature style in the process around a cohesive theme on Quarter Life Daydream.

Glass Hands is available now and streaming everywhere. Quarter Life Daydream will be out Friday October 21 via 3DOT Recordings.

Photo Credit: Samantha Davies

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