Linkin Park's "Heavy Is the Crown" had a big moment when it premiered worldwide as Riot Games' 2024 Worlds anthem in late September, and, soon after, we learned that a different version of the song would be making an appearance as the first track on the Arcane Season 2 soundtrack album. You can now hear that version of the song, called "Heavy Is the Crown (Original Score)", as it has been made officially on available on some digital platforms including Spotify and YouTube. This variant of "Heavy Is the Crown" was arranged for Arcane by Mike Shinoda in collaboration with Alex Seaver, one of the talents involved in the music throughout the show's first season. Shinoda and Seaver are, together, credited as the composers and producers, while Shinoda and Linkin Park bandmate Emily Armstrong are credited as vocalists and primary artists. The soundtrack album it comes from, Arcane League of Legends: Season 2 (Soundtrack from the Animated Series), is due for release on November 23. The track begins with a synth drone, soft guitars and wordless vocal layers sung by Shinoda, before Armstrong enters with the "Heavy Is the Crown" chorus lyrics sung to a different melody. This tense intro leads into a big, cinematic rock instrumental part, before Armstrong delivers a reprise of the chorus with its more familiar original melody, but over a completely different chord progression and altogether new musical context. This gives it a much more sinister feel compared to the original. The timing of this release lines up with the premiere of the first three episodes of the Season 2 of Arcane. Netflix revealed that the first episode is actually titled "Heavy Is the Crown", and, unsurprisingly, the track is actually used in that episode. The first three episodes of the newest Arcane season are available to view on Netflix now. The main version of "Heavy Is the Crown", meanwhile, is taken from Linkin Park's upcoming studio album From Zero, which is dropping in full on November 15. The song is the first Worlds anthem to also have a connection to Arcane in this manner, in addition to also existing on a completely separate studio album from the artist as well. Source: Spotify
That was a lot cooler than I expected... I wish it was longer! I'm constantly amazed at how great a voice Emily has. I may need to finally check out Arcane.
I feel like lore as cool as Arcane is wasted on a game like LoL, that world deserves an epic single player adventure
In the title it says "Mike Shinoda, Emily Armstrong". Does it mean it was written before Linkin Park became Linkin Park or this was just the first version before full band version?
It's just that only those two are credited for being involved in this version as lead artists. What you hear on From Zero would have come first, and, then, the other members of the band weren't involved in creating this version.
I’m definitely feeling this version. Very cool take on the song. Also, I shared this in the shoutbox the other day if anyone is curious. At 3:08, Mike makes it sound like both versions kind of came about side by side. Initially separate?, but quickly joined. That’s what it sounds like to me.
Sounds great, definitely has the potential to be better than the album version. I Wouldn't mind one or two songs in this style or maybe let it build to an epic crescendo or something.
I wish there was a full adaption of the song in the Arcane score. It really sounds like some kind of epic adventure is going on (I know nothing about the Arcane show). I actually had thoughts of the Matrix Resurrections trailer (the 2nd half of it) when hearing this (yeah the movie was pretty bad but the trailer was good lol).
DAMN that was really great, I definitely like this a lot better than the original. It has some great bite to it, love the guitars and Emily’s soft and heavy vocals. It fits great in the episode as well (though I do think it’d be a bitttt more fitting at the end of episode 3, but still good nonetheless). All in all a really great take on the song. Slightly off topic, but I second everyone else in their recommendation for the show, it has insanely impressive animation paired with gripping storytelling. And there’s some great music on the first season’s soundtrack, as well!