The Crown Crown Of Thorns CD Review

It's always exciting when you're surprised by a release you didn't know was coming. I tend to be on top of what's releasing, but for some reason I missed this. The Crown are one of Sweden's most notable death metal bands and have released two of my favorite albums from the genre, 'Crowned in Terror' and 'Deathrace King'. Their twelfth studio album, 'Crown of Thorns', continues to display the band's fury and intensity while showing that they haven't lost a step. Quite frankly, they sound as good as they ever have.

Interestingly enough, 'Crown of Thorns' is the band's original name before having to change it in the 90's due to another band owning the rights to the name Crown of Thorns. I would like to believe the album title is in homage to that. One of the reasons I enjoy their music so much is that they tread between straight forward death and thrash metal (primarily the former) while injecting healthy doses of melodic insanity and you never know when it'll strike. Tracks "I Hunt With the Devil" and "Churchburner" bring forth that sense of excitement I felt the first time I heard them decades ago - straightforward, take no prisoners, apocalyptic beatdowns that you can't help but listen to repeatedly. "Gone to Hell" is a slower, more melodic track that I find reminiscent of Kreator and is one of my favorite offerings here. "The Storm That Comes" is an epic near seven minute ride that is a bit of a slow build with death and darkness creeping up from beneath you and when they hit the crescendo with Johan's scream and those fucking guitar solos that fade out...it's chilling.

There's no question that if you're a Crown fan you'll enjoy 'Crown of Thorns'. The only potential downside is that some might argue that it's not as heavy as some of their earlier releases, which is fair; however, this is a fantastic release that offers plenty of heavy moments that will please most everyone. I also feel that it would be criminal of me not to bring attention to the absolutely phenomenal drum work by Mikael Norén. I found myself a few times drowning everything else out and only paying attention to his playing.

~TJ