Crown Lands announced Apocalypse, their third studio album, arriving May 15 via InsideOutMusic. The Canadian progressive rock duo released the 19-minute title track today, the longest composition the band has recorded and the centrepiece of an album designed as a narrative experience across two album sides.
The Ontario duo, guitarist/bassist/keyboardist Kevin Comeau and drummer/vocalist Cody Bowles, recorded most of Apocalypse in their home studio, the same space they’ve worked in since 2020. They brought in producers Nick Raskulinecz and David Bottrill for select moments but maintained near-total control of the production process. Comeau credited their 2025 instrumental releases Ritual I and Ritual II with giving them the confidence to work independently. “That record gave us the confidence to realize we could make a Crown Lands album in our own space, without a major-label budget or a big, fancy studio.”
Listen below:
Apocalypse continues the conceptual universe Crown Lands established across their previous records. Bowles explained that Ritual takes place earlier in the timeline, showing the planet during peacetime, while Apocalypse moves the story forward and sets up events that lead directly into their 2023 album Fearless. The seven-track album includes “Foot Soldiers of the Syndicate,” “Through the Looking Glass,” “Blackstar,” and “The Revenants I” alongside the title track epic.
Crown Lands won a JUNO Award for their self-titled 2020 debut and earned another nomination for Ritual I and Ritual II, which marked their first releases on InsideOutMusic. Bowles described the writing process for the title track as beginning with instrumental sections, combining older riffs with new material, and mapping the structure on a whiteboard to figure out how each section would transition.
The album arrives in limited CD edition, gatefold neon yellow vinyl, limited gatefold neon green vinyl, and digital formats. Crown Lands tour Canada starting February 28 in Windsor, Ontario, with a stop at Cruise to the Edge in Miami on March 4 before continuing through Ontario and wrapping at New Maritime Music Festival in Miramichi, New Brunswick on July 4.
