Crown The Empire give the runaways and guitarist Benn Suede a final curtain call with a worthwhile deluxe edition.

Adding a deluxe edition to ‘The Resistance: Rise of the Runaways’ comes as no surprise given the album’s now defiant status as Crown the Empire’s best work to date. One of the most effortlessly lasting concept albums in recent years, last year’s storming success is given a swift 2015 makeover in the form of four additional tracks, one of which is a hotly-anticipated acoustic adaptation of ‘Millennia’.

“I scream but only echoes care to listen,” cries frontman Andy Leo through the heavy as fuck ‘Prisoners of War’. A neat continuation of the anguished overarching theme, these new tracks are self-confessed providers of closure for this period in their existence. Equally, melodic survival anthem ‘Cross Our Bones’ stresses its attempts to get better, a prophetic soundtrack to the road ahead for the band having lost Benn to internal differences.

‘Machines (Reinvented)’ proves an artistically robotic equaliser to its metallic namesake, considerably less towering and forceful, yet still a heartfelt stripped-back rendition that definitely holds its own. Heart-wrenching in its simplicity, the acoustic rendition of the otherwise symphonic and theatrical ‘Millennia’ beautifully showcases Andy’s vocal range backed only by a piano, calling time on the swansong of the ‘Rise of the Runaways’ with the soulful closing line, “Pull the trigger and send me home.”

Crown The Empire have poured outstanding extra material onto an already fantastic record to make this edition certainly worth buying even if you already own the original.

4/5

’The Resistance: Deluxe Edition’ by Crown The Empire is out on on Rise Records.

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Words by Ali Cooper (@AliZombie_)