Thrashing your day away with a speed metal frenzy

WITHIN certain circles The Crown are an institution.

Under their former name, Crown of Thorns, the band carved a formidable reputation for themselves within the speed metal genre.

Now in their 31st year as a working band, and having changed their name to The Crown along the way, the band has just released one of the finest albums of their career and arguably one of the most impressive speed metal albums ever.

‘Royal Destroyer’ bears all the hallmarks that helped the band forge its reputation in the first place.

Make no mistake about it you won’t be hearing much of this album on your average daytime radio because full of hit singles it definitely isn’t but that’s not what The Crown are about.

With titles like ‘Baptized in Violence’ and ‘Let the Hammering Begin’, the first two tracks on the album, you know exactly what to expect and they don’t disappoint.

The former track is an absolute cracker of an opener. Full of aggressive, punky angst, it begins with a slight speed metal slant but when the second rhythm guitar kicks in it takes on a more thrash metal vibe.

The chorus is very strong and the chanted refrain of ‘ baptized in violence’ is extremely effective.

Lyrically. the song could be interpreted as an observation on global society at large where the politics of ignorance and division is on the rise and religion is used as a tool of aggression.

‘Let the Hammering Begin’ is a colossus of a song and it takes no prisoners.

The drumming of Henrik Axelsson is absolutely fantastic and the amount of stamina, precision and technical ability that goes into holding down the rhythm when it comes to speed metal cannot be overstated.

There are a number of different movements to the track and the overall arrangement is fantastic.

At around the three minute mark the song takes an old school thrash turn and it’s absolutely brilliant to hear.

Vocalist, Johan Lindstrand, has a fantastic voice for this type of music.

There is the right balance of aggression and lyrically his words are perfectly applicable to a modern-day world that’s somewhat in turmoil.

One of the really appealing aspects to The Crown’s sound is how utterly ‘ heavy’ it is.

The bottom end is very prevalent and in bass player and songwriter, Magnus Olsfelt, the band has a phenomenal musician.

However, he’s in good company because Marko Tervonen (guitar) and Robin Sörqvist (guitar and backing vocals) are fabulous musicians and the overall high standard of musicianship within the band is on full show throughout the album.

Another very important weapon in the band’s arsenal is the fact the songwriting duties are shared between members and that has a bearing on the album.

‘Motordeath’ is one of the standout tracks and from an arrangement point of view the repeating guitar riff that follows each vocal line of the chorus is fantastic and it acts like a musical shadow of the vocals.

‘Ultra Faust’ is a glorious, brooding slab of doom metal and invokes an image of an apocalyptic wasteland populated by people whose religion has forsaken them; the opening line would be enough to have Satan himself looking over his shoulder in fear.

‘Glorious Hades’ is a midpaced grinder where Lindstrand’s guttural vocals are offset by an extremely melodic guitar pattern. The arrangement is, again, fantastic.

The addition of a subtle acoustic guitar pattern at the 2’35” mark is extremely effective before the song goes full circle towards the end.

‘Full Metal Justice’ is speed thrash at its best and features some stunning twin guitar breaks while ‘Scandinavian Satan’ is a death metal workout where the lyrics of Magnus Olsfelt switch between English and Swedish.

‘Devoid of Light’ is a moody groove-laden thrash metal track where things turn to speed metal at the 1’30” mark.

There are many twists and turns throughout the album while at the same time it highlights all of the components that are synonymous with the band’s overall sound.

‘We Drift On’ is a stomping melodic metal epic with some surprising and very effective interludes such as the acoustic and clean electric refrain around one minute in.

The final track on the regular album is ‘Beyond the Frail’ and it provides the ideal way to finish things off. Brutal and unforgiving it takes no prisoners and while melodic it’s also crushing at the same time and fans of The Crown wouldn’t have it any other way.

There are two bonus tracks on some versions of the album but suffice to say if you’re a fan of death metal this is a worthy addition to the collection.