Black Crown Initiate’s Beards and Touring Schedule are Not “The Fractured One”

Black Crown Initiate are the new Warbringer, who were the opening act on seemingly EVERY tour in 2008/2009. I love the band as much as — if not more than — the next guy, but it’s hard not to get burned out after a little while. Looking back at my calendar, I think I’ve seen BCI live five times just in 2014! If you somehow haven’t managed to trip and fall down only to find yourself at a Black Crown Initiate show yet this year, you can catch them with Crowbar and Unearth this December and then with Napalm Death, Voivod, Exhumed and Iron Reagan early next year. And, if I were a betting man, you’ll catch them on both Summer Slaughter and Metal Alliance next year — just conjecture!

So familiar am I with BCI that, while watching the band’s new video for “The Fractured One,” I feel a sense of nostalgia for guitarist Rick Stelzpflug’s mighty, banded beard, which I can tell you with unfortunate certainty he has now shaved. Grow it back, dude! The mohawk + beard was a killer look, like a Cherokee warrior coming to slay all metal minions into a chewy, gristly pulp. Don’t worry — everyone else in BCI still has a beard except for drummer Jesse Beahler, who heeds not my call, which I guess makes him “The Fractured One” in this case.

Check out the Jess Orsburn-directed video for “The Fractured One” below, via Toaster in the Tub Studios. The Wreckage Of Stars is, of course, out now.