Background Information
It happens some times that you find a band that you really like but then you discover that that particular band is disbanded or something like that,
The Crown was one such band. They came to life in Sweden during the 90’s; their original band name was Crown Of Thorns back then but they were forced to change their name just because of the pressure from a Christian band. ‘’What a stupid thing, tough guys like The Crown being forced to change their name because of a lame Christian band?’’ may some of you think and I agree, anyway, the band released some albums before they quit around 2004, even if they had to split-up they left some traces of metal for the people to search for. Extreme f***ing brutality are some words that I like to use when I describe these guys, if you thought
In Flames or
Carnal Forge were crushing metal then you haven’t heard the music of
The Crown. I would use these more specific words if I had to classify this band: Extreme, brutal, fast, heavy, and ferocious thrash-metal. But that were just some of my own words that I would use,
The Crown was definitely a thrash-metal band but they played a very frantic and brutal style of thrash which was mixed with the intensity of melodic death-metal, a bit punk and some
Motorhead influences (can be heard on the album called
Deathrace King). But, unfortunately people didn’t found this music so good even though that this was extreme music.
Album Information
The Crown made five or six albums and none of them struck very big, this review is going to give some information about their last brutal achievement called
Possessed 13, I remembered that I saw a thrash documentary on television and there was this guy who was a editor or something for a magazine called
Close Up if I remember correct. His favourite thrash album for the moment was
Possessed 13 by
The Crown and I immediately started to look after this particular album. I forgot about the album for a couple of years because I forgot the band name, but one day I finally found it and now I will share my opinion with you people. This album was released in 2003 and was the bands last album; here you have massive thrashing brutality and some calmer instrumental songs. If you thought that this could be melodic stuff like Gothenburg metal then you were totally wrong, there are no signs of melody in the material, perhaps in the instrumental songs called
In Memorium and
Dream Bloody Hell and the guitar solos. Once you have heard the first track called
No Tomorrow you will know what this album is all about, yes, speed and brutality, the whole material is basically pure aggression and brutality. Some people would see this as boring noise but for the people who love intense and extreme metal music this album would deliver several eargasms. I admit that this album maybe doesn’t have some much diversity or variety but you will find a favourite song with time, my first favourite song was
Natashead Overdrive, it was most because of the highly accurate drumming, the highly addictive thrash-shredds and blistering solos. Later I found more songs that had similar structures like
Kill Ém All,
Face Of Destruction/Deep Hit Of Death and
Are You Morbid?, while the other songs are more like heads down full frontal thrash attacks. Every band has their own lyrics, these lyrics won’t impress you though, the band’s most common lyric themes are often based on death, violence and anti-religious stuff, some people might see these lyrics as poetry, and some might see these as great lyrics while others might think that this is just more horrid metal trash lyrics.
The Crew
The Crown never had many replacements, according to the facts I have found it seems like there was only two temporary replacements, one vocalist and one guitarist,
Anders Fridén from
In Flames was a temporary vocalist in during the recording of
Crowned In Terror. There has always been the same crew the whole time in other words,
The Crown was created by a group of five persons and this album had all the original members.
Johan Lindstrand was the vocalist, he delivers very forceful and grinding vocal work, imagine that you take
Phil Anselmo’s vocals and mix them with
Dark Tranquillity’s singer and you will have an idea of how
Lindstrand sounds like.
Marko Tervonen and
Marcus Sunesson were the two guitarists, if you are looking for furious and energetic guitar work then you have struck gold. These guys deliver strong and powerful rhythm sections and innovative lead work, most riffs maybe isn’t so catchy but that is a matter of taste I suppose. Guitar solos are present in this album, the overall music is most of the time controlled chaos but the solos are actually melodic from time to time, but even the solos are quite energetic and somewhat chaotic but that means more fuel to the fire if you know what I’m talking about.
Magnus Olsfelt was the bassist of this band, when I first heard the first song I noticed that the bass was very audible, it really surprised me I was hoping that this bass was present in every song, I was right. You can hear the bass very clear, it forces its way through the thick wall of sound made by the two guitars and it creates a bludgeoning and crushing sound. You can notice a few fills here and there but the bass remains in the hall of rhythm, I think that this album didn’t need any standouts from the bass since it was this powerful.
Janne Saarenpää was the drummer of this band, the engine of this band in other words. This type of drumming out classes the most drummers you thought were good, sometimes you wonder if this type drum performances are made by a human being because it is so incredibly fast and precise. The drum patterns are often solid thrash/death beats but there are some very catchy patterns throughout the material, incredible drumming is all I can say.
My Conclusion
And I thought that
Deathrace King was an intensive album, guess I was quite wrong. This is probably the fastest and most brutal death/thrash album I have heard yet; even it was so darn intensive I did find some favourite songs that were catchier than the rest. I liked everything about this album basically, the only thing I didn’t like was that I didn’t fell in love will all the songs but everything else was flawless. The guitars, the bass, the vocals and of course the drumming, everything was precise and accurate, this is a perfect album if you want to go berserk one someone or something if you know what I mean. I liked this album because of the insane brutality, incredible speed and tight musicianship. I will soon end this review and I hope that this has been a good guidance and I hope you enjoy reading this review.
Requirements
This is a new thing that I came up with when I was trying to change my reviewing formats, this little section will represent a few bands that you should’ve heard of before you listening to the album that has been reviewed so you know what you are up against. If you have heard at least one or two of these bands or perhaps all of them you might find this album interesting.
--
Carnal Forge
--
Deathchain
--
Hypnosia
--
Arch Enemy
Pros
+ Extremely tight and accurate drumming
+ Incredible overall music performance
+ This album screams brutality
+ People who like extreme thrash will find this as good music
+ A very clear and crushing bass
Cons
- This album can be
too intense for inexperienced metal people
- If you are not a fan of thrash then you won’t enjoy this album
Recommended Tracks
-- Natashead Overdrive
-- Are You Morbid?
-- Kill Ém All
-- Face Of Destruction/Deep Hit Of Death
-- In Memorium
Since these kinds of albums will never reach classic status I will give it a 4.5/5
