The Crown
Crowned In Terror
Metal Blade
Ho-Lee Crap! These guys put the “B” in “brutal,” in the form of a _b_ig _b_oot straight to my buns and upside my head at the same time! I love getting a record like this, one that is completely excellent and awesome from start to finish! This is truly a 10 out of 10, in all facets!
The Crown plays fast and ultra heavy death/thrash metal that never lets up. The highlight of the band is the band itself: the guitars are warm and completely seething with molten lava, the drums are totally out of this world, with blast beats that actually make sense, and the vocals, by ex-At The Gates vocalist Tomas Lindberg, are unbridled and just about perfect for this type of completely aggressive music.
Someone I was talking to was trying to tell me that The Crown’s music doesn’t make sense because all it is is just a bunch of guys who are busy trying to sound brutal and not worrying about structuring quality songs; he couldn’t have been more wrong. In this kid’s favor (he said there were too many blast beats), there may be a few too many blast beats on Crowned In Terror, but who gives a crap! The rest of the instrumentation and incredible vocals make up for that! This is a fascinatingly tough chunk of death metal, the quality of which is in the top one-percent of all metal releases in the history of the world! I know people will say I’m crazy, but I think Crowned In Terror is better than their Deathrace King album; there’s just more power this time around.
Obviously, if you like music that will make you want to punch walls and scream at the top of your lungs, give this one a try. If you listen to corny corporate metal (Disturbed, Slipknot, et al), you really need to get away from that crap and step outside of your small box. The Crown isn’t such a hugely popular band for no reason; these guys rock 110% and no one can deny their sheer power. Absolutely amazing!
Metal Blade Records: http://www.metalblade.com