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I don’t know how I missed this band for so long. Splitting up in 2004, The Crown has seven albums on their conscience. This was released in 2000, and is stated by frontman Johan Lindstrand as their best release. Quote: "There are no ups and downs on that album, but all pure ten pointers every song." He is absolutely right.The Crown plays face-slamming, fast and deadly thrash metal. It makes my neck tickle. A lot. The riffs are exploding, fast and ripping, and full off hooks. The leads aren’t particularly dominant, but they’re short, fast and evil The first thing you’ll notice is the raw and insane screaming from Johan Lindstrand. They’re not very guttural or anything, the words are clearly noticeable. However, it sounds like he is putting himself through hell performing them. A criminally underrated death metal vocalist. On Devil gat ride he shares vocal duties with future vocalist, Thomas Lindberg (At the gates). The way they trade vocal lines on the verses is nothing short of incredible. Janne Saarenpää’s drumming is maybe the best performance on here. He provides us with ultrafast, blasting and intense drums with tons of fills. His style is similar to early Slayer, and he does one hell of a job providing a rock solid backbone, which is very important in this particular genre. Just listen to how he punishes the drums on Executioner: slayer of the light. It’s insane. This is not all about rawness and brutality though. There are a couple of songs here that are pretty inspired by melodeath. Back to the Grave, Rebel Angel, and the absolute killer I Won’t Follow are perfect examples on how In Flames among others should sound. Absolutely brilliant. The more slow-paced songs flow naturally and never lose the overall rawness. The guitars are just as heavy and groovy as before, and Lindstrand’s vocals are as raw as ever. If there was to be a weak spot here, it would be Dead man’s song, but it is by no means bad. The album closer Killing star (Superbia luxuria XXX) starts off with a great slow instrumental part, before bursting in a mixture of something that could very well be a W.A.S.P-riff, pure thrashing madness, hell, even a little punk! A definite highlight Why the hell did these guys split up? This is so damn awesome, and has caused me to order their whole discography. This is not to be ignored by fans of thrash, death and/or melodic death metal. Go buy. Very highly recommended! |
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Killing Songs : All slay! |
Thomas quoted 94 / 100 | |||||||||||||||
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