Crowned Unholy

Great clear production, with slightly muffled guitars creating Swedish Melodic Death Metal. This is the rerelease of “Crowned in Terror”, re-released due to the fact that the members weren’t happy with the original release and decided to reproduce it with the addition of original vocalist Johan Lindstrand. (The infamous Thomas Lindberg did “Crowned in Terror”)

The cd is very nicely produced, with clear production, but the guitars are slightly muffled and is less distinct. However, the guitar work of Marcus Sunesson and Marko Tervonen shine through, with distinctive melodic leading and chugging heavy thrashing riffs. The drumming of Janne Saarenpaa is slightly remarkable with interesting drumming patterns and often he gets to show off by pulling off a solo. The bass however, done by Magnus Olsfelt, is unremarkable with nothing really memorable. The vocals done by Johan Lindstrand is nothing special too, but fits the overall tone of the album very well.

The album is overall brutal and melodic in all the right places, but occasionally tends to get repetitive and boring. This is nothing groundbreaking nor mesmerizing, its just plain good old fashioned verse-chorus-verse Melodic Death Metal that doesn’t suck. But what really separates them from other Swedish Melodic Death Metal bands is just the fact of them being signed to Metal Blade rather than Century Media or Nuclear Blast. I mean, that’s it. That’s why you never see these guys touring a lot with the traditional fagothenburg bands. But that’s all that distinguishes them from everyone else.

There are several down points other than them being far from original. Some of the songs are slow and pointless. For example “World Below” does have an awesome chorus but is just overall too slow with no groove. “(I am) hell” is just boring generic Crown material that they would’ve produced 5 years ago. Also most of their songs are fast-paced but aren’t fast. Its just probably a matter of taste but I would’ve enjoyed more thrashing speed metal moments.

But all in all, “Crowned Unholy” is an awesome album that will rape any fagothenburg or Swedish Metal contemporaries any day. If they were a little bit more faster and if Fredrik Nordstrom produced it, it would’ve been much better.

But…yeah, its kinda generic standard Swedish Death Metal. By the way, do you think my review is long and boring? Well that’s what this cd’s gonna feel like after a couple of spins. Great CD, but not really a classic.

RECOMMENDED SONGS: Death Metal Holocaust, Under the whip, Satanist
LYRICS: Angst expressed in a mask of occult imagery
PRODUCTION: Overall, a clear production, but the guitar seems muffled and weak
PACKAGING: Excellent 2-cd pack with liner notes and dvd, the dvd sucks though
OVERALL: Great Swedish Death Metal, but it gets boring after a couple spins

It seems that ‘The Crown’ were not all that impressed with their initial recording of 2002’s ‘Crowned in Terror’. Quite strange really, considering that most metal folk held it in rather high regard. The presence of one Tomas Lindberg on vocals was the clincher in most punters eyes. Still, it seems that ‘CIT’ never actually reached a point where the band was satisfied with it. Exhausted, over budget, and completely fed up with the whole thing, The Crown decided to release it, flawed as it was. They then refused to listen to it.

Personally, I thought ‘CIT’ was a killer disc, yet it always seemed misplaced in the bands catalogue due to the Lindberg vocals (who replaced original frontman Johan Lindstrand). With Lindstrand returning for 2003’s ‘Possessed 13’, and the continued dissatisfaction with the whole ‘CIT’ recording, the opportunity arose, not only for the band to re-record ‘CIT’ with Lindstrand on vocals, but to finally twist and tweak the whole album in an effort to unleash ‘CIT’ as it should have appeared in the first place.

So as a new release, this is not actually anything new hey? There are certainly few thousand punters out there scratching their heads in confusion as to the whole point of this release. And really, it appears that the release of ‘Crowned Unholy’ is more about appeasing band member satisfaction than anything else. I’m not sure how much Metal Blade forked out for the end result of ‘CU’, but as shrewd business people they must think it’s worth it. I’m not that convinced.

As a major fan on this band over the past 14 years, I would probably fork out my hard earned for this release. However, if you’re not an absolute die-hard ‘The Crown’ fan and already have a copy of the original ‘CIT’ sitting around in your collection, un-played for the past two years, I doubt that the release of ‘CU’ will entice you to do the same. There are no new songs on this album – just re-recordings with their original vocalist. And as hard as the guys have undoubtedly worked on making some changes to the sound of ‘CIT’, personally it’s all minor cosmetic fluff rather than anything earth-shatteringly different. For the record, ‘CU’ features re-recorded bass tracks from Magnus, a new version of the intro (originally written by Marko, now programmed by Janne) and a digitally enhanced drum sound. Overall, the whole thing sounds a tad thicker and more in tune with the ‘core’ Crown sound.
The only other possible reason why some of you will want to pick this up is to witness the band in full flight on the bonus 14 track Live DVD. I’ve never seen ‘The Crown’ play live, so this disc is truly THE bonus for me. Recorded live in a dingy pub in Karlsruhe, Germany (Nov 2003), this disc is at least gives you some excellent visuals of their death/thrash riffmiesters in Marcus Sunesson and Marko Tervonen, the hulking frontman in Johan Lindstrand and their ‘killer filler’ sticksman Janne Saarenpaa.

The booklet supplied with this disc is another bonus – excellent liner notes from all members give an additional insight to changes made to certain tracks. It’s probably a good thing they did this because most of the modifications are hard to spot by just listening to it. Of course, it’s a sad fact that ‘The Crown’ is no longer with us and I suppose as a parting shot ‘Crowned Unholy’ at least brings things full circle for the band. However for the fans, the bottom line remains: This is for ‘The Crown’ completists only.