Of all the many lessons Crown Lands have heeded from their Canadian prog-rock patron saints in Rush, perhaps the most important is the need to balance their grandiose musical explorations with punchy, radio-ready singles. The Ontario duo’s fourth album Apocalypse is effectively a mirror image of the 2112 template, stacking the shorter tracks on side one and devoting the second half to an epic multi-sectional suite. The first half effectively imagines an alternate ’80s where Rush listened to less Ultravox and more Guns N’ Roses, as singing drummer Cody Bowles and guitarist Kevin Comeau fuel the dramatic rocker “Blackstar” with Axl-worthy wails and Slash-like leads, while the power ballad “Through the Looking Glass” forges the middle ground between art-rock fantasia and hair-metal hysterics. But with the staggering 19-minute title track “Apocalypse,” Crown Lands get to indulge all their favorite moves in the prog playbook—Olympian synth fanfares, Animals-era Floyd soundscapes, glistening “Red Barchetta” guitars, flute solos, brain-bending time-signature contortions that would make Angine de Poitrine lose their polka dots—all while honoring the genre’s noblest tradition: using the language of fantasy to address the injustices of the real world.