Australian metalcore band Traces unveiled their new single “Crown of Thorns” yesterday.

The track stems from the band’s forthcoming album Red, which is based on toxic relationships and the aftermath that follows. “Crown of Thorns” comes with a music video directed by the band. Vocalist Jack Pallett said this about the song:

“Crown of Thorns is an open letter to narcissists, especially those who avoid facing themselves by living a lie and believing their own delusions of grandeur, desperately trying to drag others into it and silencing those that speak up. The song was inspired by our experience with our ex-drummer who we kicked out after a series of situations where he abused, manipulated and mistreated us, our family, friends and our listeners which nearly ended the band.

Often in relationships and connections with these types of people you are unable to speak truthfully and confront them out of fear, be it from being abused, assaulted, gas-lit or emotionally blackmailed by the narcissist so they can protect their fantasy, keep their mask up and hide from their insecurities. Crown is our attempt to say what we feel everyone who’s a victim of these kinds of relationships wants and needs to say but can’t.

We originally wrote and recorded a version of the song before we released Can’t Stop Me and played it on our 2019 headline tour. Due to the pandemic and everything that was happening in our lives at the time we didn’t end up releasing it when we planned. We wanted to go back to playing heavy music after exploring a few different sounds and genres and thought Crown would be a great way to start it all off back then, we decided to stick with our plan despite the song being well over two years old.

Crown of Thorns came from a few riffs on an unreleased EP from Ryan’s old band (featuring the ex-drummer) that worked with me (Jack) in the past. Ryan originally approached me to put out his old songs and I suggested we just rework the best parts into something for Traces. All three of us got together and worked on the song from start to finish as a group which is different to how we normally work. The goal was to make a straight to the point simple song that would work well live. The song is somewhat meta as well and self-references a single both musically and lyrically that Ryan’s old band put out, in that song our ex-drummer had a lyric concept that we didn’t realise at the time was a mirror of how he saw himself, we thought it would be interesting to do a take on that concept but showcase reality opposed to fantasy. Crown of Thorns is the first truly collaborative effort from us where everyone had a pretty equal part to play in how the song and the art surrounding it turned out.”

“Crown of Thorns” is available on digital services right now.

In February, Traces will be touring Australia with support from Relapse and Druid. Tour dates can be seen below. Tickets are on sale to the general public right now.

Traces tour dates

Friday 11th February - King Lears Throne - Brisbane

Sunday 13th February - Diamond Dogs Music Lounge - Wollongong

Thursday 17th February - Last Chance Rock and Roll Bar - Melbourne

Friday 18th February - Burdekin Hotel - Sydney

Saturday 19th February - Hamilton Station Hotel - Newcastle