The Crown - Doomsday King
Century Media
Death/Thrash Metal
10 songs (44:07)
Release year: 2010
The Crown, Century Media
Reviewed by Thomas

In this era of comebacks, none other than the death/thrash heroes The Crown emerges with their first release since 03's fantastic Possessed 13. These violent Swedes delivered some of the best, if not the best death/thrash metal of the decade with Hell is Here, the aforementioned Possessed 13 and especially the insane Deathrace King. In other words, this is not for sissies and girl-scouts. Doomsday King follows the same path of intense destruction and provides a straight-out face-ripping, fast, furious and immensely fierce metal assault that'll knock you off your feet and leave your eyes and ears bleeding. I must admit that I was very shaky when I heard this was approaching. Not necessarily because I feared the waves of violence that was coming, but more because Johan Lindstrand is gone, and the fact that comeback-albums tend to suck and swallow in major fashion more often than not. It is however hard to imagine the band that released tunes such as Blitzkrieg Witchcraft among others falling straight on their face and pull a Cryptopsy. While this is not as extreme and ground-breaking as their earlier material, this is still a solid kick in the nuts. The Crown sets out to do what they have always done. Rip. This is, with few exceptions, fast as fuck, with no silly breakdowns, fancy-pants effects or twists and turns. It starts off in pure anger, continues beating you heavily until the very end, just like in the good old days. The fact that they do just that makes it much easier to tolerate the few flaws and slightly lacklustre efforts. It all flows very smoothly, hitting a minimum of bumps or obstacles in their path. Except for the dead bodies they keep piling up.

After the tolling of the bells as the title-track introduces us, the familiar, shredding fast riffs of Mr. Tervonen and Sunneson, and the absolutely blazing drumming of Magnus Olsfelt kicks in. This is nothing new to the old-time fan, as it will tear you several new ones with a deadly combination of brutality and melody. Angel of Death 1839 heads down the exact same path but is more inclined towards the intensity of things. It never stops dazzling me how they never let up for just a second, and that's part of what makes them unique. They will not give you room for a breather ever, and while it's definitely exhausting, I can't help but feel a bit pleased when they're done with me. Age of Iron brings the pinch of melody to the table that always made them looked upon as a melodic death metal band earlier, and the melodeath vibe is definitely there, but not in the false shape that has become so common nowadays. It's part of the music, but nothing more, never overshadowing anything or trying to wrestle down the extremity of this, yet in enough doses to spice things up a bit. The slower, churning The Tempter and the Bible Black is crushingly heavy despite its slowness, while the following Soul Slasher brings things up to speed again with relentless riffing and merciless vocal work. The rest of the album consists of rather uncompromising songs like the almost macabre anthem Blood O.D, Through Eyes of Oblivion which contains some fantastic NWOBHM-ish guitar-work as well as the epic-feeling, almost modern black metal-like finishing blow He Who Rises in Might – From Darkness to Light.

Could there be anything off on this album? Is it up to par with earlier releases? Well, in itself, Doomsday King is extremely intense, ripping, brutal and melodic at the same time. In other words, there's no doubt that The Crown still know their way around metal. However, compared to earlier efforts I can't help but feel a bit disappointed. Of course, the run they were on back in the day, where some albums will be baptised classic in not too long, eventually had to end. There is no way you'd pick up this over for example Deathrace King, but on the other hand, no-one really expected them to outdo that stuff either. A great album for what it is and definitely something you'd enjoy if you're into them, but as mentioned, not comparable to their earlier works. Still though a damn good album which I'll easily recommend!

Killing Songs :
Doonmsday King, Age of Iron, Soul Slasher, Blood O.D, Through Eyes of Oblivion, He Who Rises in Migt - From Darkness to Light
Thomas quoted 83 / 100
Other albums by The Crown that we have reviewed:
The Crown - Royal Destroyer reviewed by Ben and quoted 76 / 100
The Crown - The Burning reviewed by Thomas and quoted 80 / 100
The Crown - Hell Is Here reviewed by Thomas and quoted 92 / 100
The Crown - Deathrace King reviewed by Thomas and quoted 94 / 100
The Crown - Crowned Unholy reviewed by Jay and quoted no quote
To see all 8 reviews click here
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