Published on Jul 26, 2000
Okay, so I’ve been real critical of European death metal bands
of late. I can’t help it – and, if you got the amount of death
metal in the mail to review like I do, you’d probably be making
some of the same comments I have been recently.
But when it comes to Sweden’s The Crown – well, I’m willing to
admit that I could have been wrong about some of my
generalizations. Their album
Deathrace King contains the kind of originality and
excitement that I’ve found to be lacking in many recent releases of
their contemporaries.
So who are these five guys – I mean, besides me rattling off
their names as I’ll probably do later in the review? Take the
darker side of music like Slayer, add in the breakneck pace of a
group like Napalm Death – and throw in a touch of irreverence from,
oh, let’s say Lungbrush, and you’ve got a band who knows how to
create fresh sounds. From the disc’s Venom-on-speed opener
“Deathexplosion” to the slow build of dark terror of “Killing
Star,” there’s very little about these guys not to like.
It’s interesting sometimes to hear the clash of styles, such as
the frantic speed metal drumming of Janne Saarenpää below
the almost Kiss-like guitar melodies of Marko Tervonen and Marcus
Sunesson, all with bassist Magnus Olsfelt thumping away (albeit a
little too hidden in the mix at times) and vocalist Johan
Lindstrand growling with remarkable clarity. Sure, you still need
the lyric sheet at times, but more often than not, Lindstrand makes
sure that you can understand his dark rumblings.
As for the dark imagery in
Deathrace King, sometimes it doesn’t really sound as
convincing as, say, Mercyful Fate. I won’t question the band’s
beliefs, but sometimes it feels like there’s not a lot of muscle to
back up those commitments (though an exception is made for “Dead
Man’s Song”). But, in The Crown’s defense, the music is actually
fun to listen to, and it transcends any shortcomings one might want
to try to find.
Tracks like “Devil Gate Ride,” “Rebel Angel” and “Total Satan”
help to assure the listener that
Deathrace King is a disc you’ll want to keep coming back to
over and over again. And, it helps restore my faith in a genre that
I once feared could be headed to stagnation. The Crown helps to
assure that darker, death metal is by no means dead.