There’s a certain beauty in finality—a sense of urgency, depth, and unfiltered honesty. That’s exactly what Broken Wolves deliver in Crown of Fire, their final release. The Toronto-based band has decided to part ways, but not before leaving behind a parting gift that feels both grand and intimate. With just four tracks, this EP distills everything the band did so well: lush, melancholic melodies, haunting lyricism, and a sonic palette that dances between folk, psych-rock, and shoegaze. It’s short, but it lingers like smoke after the flame.
Since their debut in 2019, Broken Wolves carved out a space in the modern rock landscape that felt rooted in the past while staring down the future. Their sound was never afraid to get dark or strange—often layered with meaning, mystery, and myth. With Crown of Fire, they lean into those qualities even harder. From the brooding opener “I Don’t Sleep” to the beautifully scorched title track, there’s a cinematic edge to the whole project, as if each song were a scene in a quiet apocalypse.
Thematically, the EP is rich in symbolism—fire, ruin, rebirth—echoing both ancient myth and modern anxieties, especially around environmental collapse. But what makes it truly compelling is how personal it all feels. The band isn’t just telling a story—they’re letting us hear what the end sounds like. And it’s stunning.
We caught up with Broken Wolves to talk about the meaning behind Crown of Fire, their creative process, and the epic story they didn’t quite get to finish. It’s a look inside one of the most underrated acts in Canadian psych-rock, and a proper sendoff to a band that deserved far more time in the spotlight.
Let’s dive in.
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The title “Crown of Fire” is bold and intense — what does it represent for Broken Wolves? Is it metaphorical, personal, or both?
Absolutely metaphorical – all to do with the imagery I had in mind of this woman, cloaked red, some sort of elemental fire god with a crown aflame. And somewhat symbolic of so many civilizations, empires throughout history that are kindled, burn bright, sometimes too bright and without control, only to either wither out or consume everything they touch, including themselves.
A fire burns itself out, unless it is fed. Civilization is at a bit of a breaking point where we have our stretched ourselves in our commune with nature, and the risks now are unlike anything we can fathom. The whole is very much a didactic allegory around the Ozymandias tale of “all great empires are bound to fall”, but especially one so content with literally burning nature to the ground.
Can you take us into the origin story of the EP — was there a spark or a specific event that ignited the creative process?
I had this imagery in my head, as a teenager, of a woman made of flame, her eyes afire, glowing, entrancing, suffocating in a way, but beautiful. A fire god of sorts, but something hallowed and threatening – not to be trusted but tempting. The band always had this lyricism of environmentalism built into it, but Crown Of Fire as a track was a bit more blunt around the imagery and the subject matter.
What themes or messages are you exploring across the tracks in “Crown of Fire”? Is there a narrative arc, or are they more standalone moments?
Funnily enough, our previous work, “The Summons” was originally intended to be act one of a grand concept album arc, and the intention was that Crown Of Fire would be a segue into the final act which would follow the rest of the concept album to it’s end point. In a quick summary, a protagonist gets visions of the end days and is prompted by otherworldly spirits to seek out a fire god deep in limbo to help save the world.
In doing so, they unintentionally set about the apocalypse, and in a moment of clarity and selflessness, help a struggling plant in limbo, which sets about some redemption and saves the planet. Long and ambitious, it was just too much. Also, it feels like this is probably one of the worst times to release a multi-series concept album, just culturally speaking. But ultimately, there is a theme in Crown of Fire that is a direct follow up to the Summons album, in a way detailing the events and interplay between the ill-fated protagonist and the Fire Goddess.
Did you approach songwriting or composition differently for this EP compared to your earlier work?
Like much of the previous work, a lot of the tunes were written ahead of time, but I would argue that this album showcases much more minimalism at the core of it. “I Don’t Sleep” is just two chords and a lot of band interplay, and I think there was a choice made to bring everything back to something more palpable, simple, while keeping an epic quality to everything. “Fool” very much came out of the blue as a song, along with “I Don’t Sleep”, but “Cauldron” and “Crown” were more purposefully workshopped, on a lyrical level, where as the former two had things to say and I agreed to let them speak in a sense – there’s more abstraction in those tunes but many of the same themes remain.
Is there a track on the EP that best defines who Broken Wolves are right now — and why?
I think “I Don’t Sleep” perhaps encapsulated the band best – we used to do a cover of “Venus In Furs” by the Velvet Underground and it definitely influenced that one. It was of the highlights to our live set, and I think a part of me wanted to have something like it in the set while being original. It wasn’t fully intentional to mimic the tune, but I wanted something slow, spooky, smouldering that could open up some room for everyone to stretch out, exaggerate band dynamics while keeping it super simple. Our earlier stuff was more arranged and orchestrated, but at certain point I wanted to craft tunes that were better vehicles to showcase everyone’s unique abilities in the band, rather than make highly complex prog-influenced arrangements.
The title suggests something explosive and powerful — did that influence the sonic textures or production choices on this project?
Definitely – for the moments we would go loud, I wanted to emulate the 90s “soft loud” dynamic that so many grunge and alternative bands were known for at that time. I wanted it to feel like a bomb would go off at the end of a verse. I will say however that Shoegaze has had a huge influence on my life as well, so I wanted to welcome some softer, blended textures as well, while retaining some firepower when needed.
Which song was the most challenging to finish — whether emotionally, technically, or collaboratively?
That’s a great question, and I want to say maybe Crown Of Fire. I think it took quite a few swings at when we were doing the rhythm section live off the floor, mostly for the ending. The 12 string guitar, drums and bass were all recorded at Ear Drum Valley live off the floor, while the rest of it was overdubbed at James’ (Bass/Producer) place. Emotionally however I would say the whole thing was a bit challenging to finish as the band officially split in April 2024 roughly a month and change since we finished the rhythm section tracking.
At that point I made the decision we’d finish it regardless, and we ended up doing independent tracking separately up until maybe the end of summer. There is something strange about putting out a product where you know there isn’t going to be a release show, or a celebration, or really any future prospects after the fact, but I couldn’t bear shelving it or canning it.
How has Broken Wolves evolved leading up to “Crown of Fire”? Are you in a different creative headspace than in your previous releases?
I think we became a tighter band, more efficient, and more collaborative. A massive part of this last album was just trying to open things up to let everyone have nice moments to shine, rather than going to town on orchestration and overcomplicating things. A big part of the philosophy for me was “Back to basics” and an attempt to highlight the best aspects of the band while trimming the fat.
I think this round we had a real clear sense of the sonic palette of the band, the dynamics, the tones, everything. The unit working at it’s best and it was less about a wide array of material as much as honing a refined vision that would cut through to the right audience, and really perfect this blend of 60s folk and psych with 90s grunge and shoegaze influences. I think we accomplished this in a way, despite whatever critique we might receive for this album or our previous work.
How do you balance individual influences within the band to create the cohesive sound we hear on this EP?
It’s a great question – I think there is a freedom in music that is termed “psychedelic” as it gives a lot of room for what can come in and be presented. But ultimately I think it’s about making sure there is space and balance, and good interplay between membership. Everyone in the band is a pro musician in their own right, and if anything our success with this release comes on the heels of finding a better balance than we had previously.
But the influences are very much just blended in, and I think they wouldn’t be as acceptable in the genres of say pop, rock, metal, what have you, but I do believe the psychedelic and alternative genres are great for this purpose – there can be a freedom and things can come from outside.
And I truly believe that’s how we find progress, and that’s how any genre gets a second wind, develops, or births a new genre – some sort of experimentation and fusion of things, at the risk of being perhaps inaccessible for a majority of people. But one of the core elements we agreed to was, “make it spooky, make it dark, build it up and hit it hard” as much as we can, and I think it came through in the end.
What do you hope fans feel when they hear “Crown of Fire” for the first time?
I hope they feel like they’ve entered a new world – something that is at once familiar, uncannily a place of home, but also utterly new and exciting. I want people to feel like they stepped into a portal to middle earth or something ahaha, maybe not fully blown Tolkien verse but a world that brings both comfort and confrontation.
Something that people FEEL like they’ve heard before, known before, seen before, but are actually seeing for the first time. A musical déjà vu of sorts, which is what I would use to describe any instant I was deeply affected by hearing a genre or band that I never heard before and challenges my understanding of music. I want it to be something they come back to – maybe think, “ya, why not a distorted 12 string guitar with some banshee howls, what else could go with that?”.
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Have any reactions to the new music surprised you — whether from long-time fans or new listeners?
Not necessarily, but maybe just what people say is their favourite track. “I Don’t Sleep” seems to be a favourite among family, but I also thought “Fool” might make more waves than it has so far. Still waiting for all the reviews from friends to come in, but I can say on behalf of the band we are all mutually proud of the work we did. And I believe everyone brought their A-Game to this release, everyone shines and everyone did fantastic work, in my humble opinion.
If you could play this EP live in one setting that matches its energy and themes — where would it be?
Oh wow, very interesting question… hard to say, I mean, I would want to perform it in a dungeon maybe ahaha, or some medieval castle turned venue. I feel like it longs to be played in an ancient place, or an abandoned church. Come to think of it I think a cathedral would be a good place. I’m not religious, but there’s folkloric and didactic themes around promethean fire, faust, Frankenstein, etc in the music – don’t overstep your bonds with nature kind of thing.
I feel like it almost wants to be a sermon, something to people, “hey, we’ve gone wrong, there’s something needing fixing”. Without being overly patronizing, I do believe there needs to be more art addressing this issue in general, and a place of worship or a place that is considered sacred seems like a good place to promote this sort of message – if we cant count the earth as sacred bring that sermon to the places where people are there to listen.
Describe “Crown of Fire” in three words — no overthinking.
“No Planet B” – there is no victory in humanity abandoning the planet to Mars, or some other far-flung planet. We won’t stand a chance and it’s a stupid move. The story of the Wolves, at it’s core from day one, was addressing my nightmares around climate change, but reimagining them in a revisionist medieval history of sorts. My anguish, melancholy, anger, fear, all of it, in these songs.
In the 21st century I can’t understand how despite all our accomplishments we continue to destroy our planet. We got a gun pointed to our heads at this very moment, or whatever suicidal analogy you want to put in play – every day feels like we are walking blindly to disaster. And there are people who will still deny it, that 2+2=5, and there’s nothing anyone can do to prove it to them otherwise.
Their opinion trumps reality, math, physics, etc. I believe, despite all the information at knowledge at our disposal, we live in the one of the stupidest times in existence. We are eating ourselves alive like an Ouroboros of old, and we are repeating a weird cycle of self-inflected devastation.
Empires have crumbled due to this sort of hubris, seen in so many didactic folklore tales, and yet we still can’t seem to get our crap together to make some meaningful changes. But unlike before, an empire would fall to some other tribe, or nation, or empire to inherit the curse – this time it’s us versus nature, and we are the loser in either outcome, unless we decide to do something about putting the priority of our survival, of us, the planet, over the priority of profit. To quote an excellent Psych band, Quicksilver Messenger Service, “Pride of Man / Broken in the dust again” End rant.
What’s a lyric from the EP that hits you the hardest, and what’s the story behind it?
“Feels like it’s been all year / I was pleading with some ancient fear
“Done and gone the month of May / Scampering to it’s shallow grave”
It goes back to when we had those wildfires here in Ontario maybe two years ago – the sky was red for a few days here, eventually the smoke spread to Toronto, a dark reddish hue to the sky for a bit. New York looked really eerie as well when it reached them. It was just this moment of dread for me. I’m mostly a music instructor by trade, and I had to have some hard conversations with students who opened up about their concerns.
I’ll never forget one image from that time – There’s a chalkboard at the place I teach, and a small kid had drawn a picture of trees burning, and that devastated me. Something utterly heartbreaking about it. And I had been pleading with myself, or something, that things might get better, or that we would be drawn to some awareness. Dreading the summer months, never sure how it’d go down. And that line about month of May, just feeling like so many years of a short spring, then fire season. And as I write this, Manitoba and Saskatchewan and Ontario have fires raging. California burned in January. It’s only going to keep happening, and really, really isn’t rocket science. I don’t know what I’d trade to guarantee that the kids I teach will grow up safe from our own mistakes.
And that, in a nutshell, is the thought behind the Broken Wolves story – how far would any of us go to save ourselves, from ourselves, and would it even be enough? What is our humanity worth if it kills us? Which part of us will save us, the wolf or the man, the rational or the bestial? For all our accomplishments, we are creatures of habit, and I just hope we can turn things around.
