Review Summary: Tomas Lindberg puts on his best post-At The Gates performance for The Crown's best album
The best The Crown album is not quite like the other The Crown albums that came before and since its 2002 release. But this is not all attributed to just its having a superior quality when compared to the other albums, actually: for one, it features
At The Gates-voice Tomas Lindberg with his best vocal performance since his
Slaughter of the Soul days, and for two, The Crown are at their most ferocious sonically as a death/thrash group, as well as at their most melodic, too. The change in sonic happenings when compared to the excellent – and often cited by critics, masterpiece -
Deathrace King can almost be attributed to Lindberg’s presence on the album alone.
It turns out that Lindberg unfortunately left The Crown soon after
Crown In Terror’s release, though; the rest of the group joined with prior vocalist Johan Lindstrand to re-record the album under the title of
Crowned Unholy in 2004, as they were not happy with the original results. Shame, as The Crown were at their strongest with Lindberg at the helm, and
Crowned In Terror’s excellence is evidence of that. Each of the ten proper tracks – “Introduction: House of Hades” serves as an instrumental intro – contains a distinct identity of its own, while revolving around The Crown’s intense sound, coupled with a hefty dose of melody, too. If any of the other tracks were as catchy, and even as accessible, as “Drugged Unholy” or “Death Is The Hunter”,
Crowned In Terror might fit into the melodic death metal genre – albeit with some struggle.
But The Crown are intense and furious, though, and while Lindberg and his Gothenberg roots lend
Crowned In Terror to being
Slaughter Of the Soul-ish – check out the riffing of guitarists Marko Tervonen and Marcus Sunesson on the opening of “World Below” and “(I Am) Hell” for some obvious
At The Gates influence – The Crown make sure to keep the intensity up, thrash influences intact, for a melody-flavored death metal product. The tempo speeds are not quite up to that of
Deathrace King, however; yet the volume of the production on record and the technical playing of the guitarists make this The Crown’s most ball-bustin’ experience - excluding the recent, pointless intensity of the mediocre
The Doomsday King.
Keeping the music fast, raging, and catchy throughout
Crowned In Terror’s ten tracks make it to be The Crown's best album, even succeeding its popular predecessor,
Deathrace King. Lindberg’s presence gives the the band more of a focus on melody, and the vocalist is the perfect driving vehicle for this aim. His work that would later come with the-at-the-present mediocre
Nightrage with 2003’s
Sweet Vengeance and 2005’s
Descent Into Chaos show where the singer’s strengths truly lie, and for this one release, The Crown get the legend at his best. Lindberg’s voice, as well as The Crown’s furious death/thrash metal, make
Crowned In Terror a superb experience that any metalhead needs to check out.
