Long did I dwell on the loss of The Crown in 2004 (first known as Crown of Thorns until Gene Simmons stuck his nose into their affairs). Thankfully, these Swedes have come back with a vengeance and with little change from their last recording line up of 2004. The only difference being vocalist Jonas Stalhammar who sang in the legendary Macabre End/God Macabre, Utumno and most recently the excellent Bombs of Hades now joins the ranks.
Have those 6 years of absence been used wisely? Well yes, bassist Magnus Olsfeld continued to write songs and the result is a deafening racket of wondrous proportions. From the opening tune, there is a slow doom ridden start complete with clichéd church bells, but then you are taken into The Crowns own realm, fast aggressive, riff laden death/thrash. Drummer Janne hits all the fills and blasts the kick drum almost sending it through the skin, a very powerful sound indeed. The Crown pulls of intensity but still provide a groove to their magic. ‘Age of Iron’ has some wonderful guitar work in the mid section whilst maintaining the constant barrage of relentless energy. Recent performances at Summer Breeze were noted for people not liking the vocals so much, but on album, Jonas simply puts to bed all those sceptics and is an instant success in my mind. Vocals are precise, but gruff, a perfect tone for this invasion of brutality displayed in ‘Doomsday King’.
‘From the Ashes I Shall Return’ seems a little chaotic and disjointed, in fact I have found the first half of the album much more pleasing than the latter, but having said this, I don’t feel there are any filler tracks, they just blow their load at the start of the album. Tantalising the listener with brutal renditions of the Swedish kind, The Crown are hopefully not just a flash in the pan reunion, this project needs to continue and develop these fantastic tunes further, hopefully with more touring (but don’t give up again!).
http://www.myspace.com/thecrownonlineswe
http://www.centurymedia.com/index.aspx
