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The Crown > Deathrace King > Reviews
The Crown - Deathrace King

Always operating at 1000% - 100%

Demon Fang, January 13th, 2021

Back in the 90s, The Crown had made some of the most elegant yet aggressive melodic death metal this side of The Red in the Sky is Ours. But knowing or at least figuring that they couldn’t quite replicate or top Eternal Death – not helping that they had to change their name from Crown of Thorns to The Crown – they ended up changing their style to some rather uptempo death/thrash. Hell is Here is good for what it is, but it’s with Deathrace King that The Crown really made their mark. Their mark, of course, being this ridiculously fun slab of death/thrash!

Everything here goes all guns blazing. Riffs playing faster than the speed of light, just thrashing right on through the sound barrier while the percussion thumps with the fury of a thousand suns and Johan Lindstrand’s vocals tearing everything in their path. It’s a big show of these fast and furious joints, all playing past 100. “Deathexplosion” tells you everything you need to know – that they’re going to take this whole death/thrash thing and make an absolute spectacle of it by playing harder and faster than everyone else. Not just the riffs, not just Johan’s single-minded mission to destroy his vocal cords, but even the solos – through the shredding resulting in these white-hot note flurries – that just love flying right on by with this massive fuck off energy to them.

Yet, the entire package remains fresh throughout. This is mainly because they never abandoned their more melodious leanings from their Crown of Thorns days. Knowing when the ease off the gas pedal a bit to let the riffs do the talking is one thing; it’s another to arrange those moments into their own little bonkers moments whether it’s through the vocals, the lively percussion and/or realizing that this is the thrash break priming you for a real fucking ripper of a riff. “Break” may imply it’s simply playing at less than 9999 BPM, but even then, it’s the momentum built off those that make the breaks less like your usual thrash breaks and more like a reprieve from the onslaught.

But even further still, it’s another to take that one step beyond to arrange allllllll of this in ways where the riffs grab your attention and impart more impact than the logs in Final Destination 2, while constructing melodies that worm their way into your subconscious. A song full of outright thrashing lunacy like “Total Satan” should just blur right on by like a lot of post-1992 thrash metal, not be this undeniably catchy pastiche of blisteringly fast riffs and well-timed thrash break that maintains the momentum through its peppy percussion and throaty rasps. It shouldn’t have each note flowing to where the out and out thrashing flows so magnificently into a catchy melody. It shouldn’t have Lindstrand going “TOTAL SATAN” with all his power be such a hoot of a chorus over some blistering thrash riffs. Yet, here we are.

But yeah, whether it’s more seeped in thrash like “Deathexplosion”, has more emphasis on hard-hitting theatrics like “Blitzkrieg Witchcraft”, more about those real nail-biting choruses like “Devil Gate Ride”, or just manically riffing like “I Won’t Follow” and “Total Satan”, Deathrace King is always operating well past full capacity. These guys turned the dial way the fuck past 11 for every performance and yet, it’s all so tightly constructed that it creates some real memorable tracks! This shows during – funnily enough – the slower joints like “Vengeance” with its crawling composition and “Dead Man’s Song” with its tasty leads and what have you. It’s even the case the opening of “Killing Star” with its Sabbathian groove before kicking into a truly climactic fireworks show. So, when those underlying principles work just as well if not better in songs that would theoretically be more interested in ripping and tearing to the point of parody – certainly would have been so in 2000 more than in 2021 – is just insane!

I'm ripping the flesh, and eating the young - 100%

goflotsam, December 19th, 2019

The Crown are one of those Swedish death metal bands I'm not as familiar with as opposed to say, At the Gates, which will be mentioned a lot in this. I'll be reviewing Deathrace King, the fourth full-length by this band and the second under "The Crown" moniker. This album displays a death/thrash style with the death metal part leaning more towards melodic death metal. But don't let that style of music fool you, Deathrace King is actually one of the best albums in its genre.

The Crown's style of death/thrash is well-displayed on opening track "Deathexplosion", an immediate highlight that contains some of the catchiest guitar riffs in the genre. It contains a guitar solo that makes At the Gates look soft in comparison. The other big highlight on Deathrace King is "Back from the Grave", which reminds me of a song from one of the Guilty Gear soundtracks. I like to jokingly call it Testament meets Dark Tranquillity. Another notable track is "Devil Gate Ride", which features Tomas Lindberg of At the Gates, who would eventually perform lead vocals on the followup to this album, Crowned in Terror. In terms of the song, the musicianship reminded me of racing games such as Need for Speed.

It's a good comparison since the guitar play on Deathrace King sounds like if itwas made for something like Ridge Racer. However, regarding the guitar play itself, the riffs are instantly catchy and the solos are short and technical, the way I like it. For example "I Won''t Follow" begins with a solo that lasts 15 seconds, whereas jokes like DragonForce will do solos for two or three minutes. The drumming on Deathrace King is heavily inspired by Slayer and early Sepultura, as displayed on songs like "Executioner - Slayer of the Light". As a fan of thrash metal, it's rather cool that there's bands that mix thrash with melodic death metal. If I had to describe Johan Lindstrand's vocal influences on here, it would be a cross between Tomas Lindberg (At the Gates) and Jeff Walker (Carcass). Not surprised that he's influenced by the two most important melodeath frontmen in the genre.

As a guy who's got a soft spot for melodic death metal and thrash metal, Deathrace King is undeniably a treat. With a soundtrack that's literally designed for driving to, it contains all of the best elements of its genre and delivers listeners with non-stop guitar play. Speaking of guitars, I've seen lists of "Top X Guitar Albums of All Time" online, and I personally think this is a quality guitar album. And if anyone knows me, I always love the guitar play in metal. Deathrace King is a masterpiece from the start line all the way to the finish line.

Let's call it speed death metal - 87%

gasmask_colostomy, June 23rd, 2017

The Crown are an unbelievable band, not just because some of their music is unaccountably good, but because they haven't just done one thing over their 25 year tenure in the Swedish metal scene. Some may drive a stake between the period when they were named Crown of Thorns and the current incarnation, while it would also be sensible to bear in mind that since the band's resurrection in 2009 the focus of the material has been rather different, Doomsday King souping up the death metal quotient of the group and fiddling around with the line-up, while Death Is Not Dead is simply not worth bothering with. This album right here, however, can certainly claim to be from The Crown's classic period that produced Hell Is Here and saw the band keener on speed and pure energy than any other time. As you can probably already gather from these comments, in addition to the other reviews on this site, Deathrace King does a lot of things right.

To specify how The Crown are different from any other band playing a similar style, it's necessary to scrutinize the production and individual players. Genre descriptions are pretty redundant, because saying that this is death thrash or melodic speed metal does nothing in the way of conjuring useful comparisons, for Possessed this is not, nor Running Wild. Really, it's left to our imaginations to say that At the Gates might have sounded like this if they had been born on motorbikes, didn't like cleanliness in their instrumental tones, and had listened to thrash metal only on old cassettes that gave no definition to the techniques of the genre. As such, this is a dirty, Motorhead versus melodeath sound that - on this album at least - deliberately incites references to the road and speeding. Very similar to Hell Is Here, the riffing style is simple and catchy but often frantically fast, the leads sometimes sounding very old-fashioned but the melodies having an atmospheric character all their own. Janne Saarenpää is a terrific drummer, using the rattle of his snare drums as often as he smashes the shit out of his kicks, having to battle all the harder to be noticed from way down in the bottom of the mix, where he kicks up dust like a Wright brothers airplane trying to take off. From that analogy, it might be expected that Magnus Olsfelt has little chance to stand out with his bass, yet his interjections to 'Devil Gate Ride' plus some grimy textures in the slower numbers come through strongly and form an important piece of the puzzle.

What made me lose my wig over Hell Is Here is also present on Deathrace King to a great extent though I'm disappointed (if I can use that word for a very positive general impression) that there isn't much of the epic melodic thrill that made 'At the End' and 'Dying of the Heart' more than just adrenaline bursts. The range of techniques that the two guitarists previously used is narrowed down to concentrate more on palm-muting than tremolos, while some of the chord sequences are just a touch less imaginative. Johan Lindstrand isn't quite as dominant in the vocal department either, though that's more down to his lyrics than actual delivery, which is still as vein-poppingly intense and aggressive as before. The themes of the album are overtly similar to the Satanic philosophy (proper "religious" Satanism, not just evil and fire) and frenzied destruction as Hell Is Here, though hold back a tiny bit on pure devotion, except when 'I Won't Follow' erupts mid-album. However, an interesting addition crops up on 'Dead Man's Song', going down a slower path with a lot of lead work that makes the detailed story very atmospheric. As a result, there isn't quite the variety to make everything stand out on first listen, the band tending to go either for speed, which is sometimes reasonably close to normal thrash ('Total Satan' and 'Executioner: Slayer of the Light') or more sinister melodic work, as on 'Vengeance' and 'Dead Man's Song'.

Although that's a minor issue for a 50 minute album, I don't exactly find my attention wandering during the experience, since there is plenty to grab the listener by the throat, not least the enraged pace that 'I Won't Follow' and 'Back from the Grave' apply to the catchy riffing. The former of these opens with perhaps the single most amazing riff of the album and the latter has some excellent lead work, making them the pick of the songs in combination with the fiery 'Deathexplosion'. None of the fast numbers are poor by any stretch of the imagination, the only niggle being that the band are not absolutely on fire with all of the tempo changes and instrumental sections. Occasionally, things become a little predictable on the over-familiar 'Rebel Angel' and the super-long 'Killing Star', while a few solos are similar to one another, though the high energy prevents this from getting boring at any point. At their very best, any of the songs could have you setting fire to your car, so perhaps you should invest in insurance before listening for the first time.

If you have never listened to The Crown before and like anything fast (whether that be Slayer, cars, or drugs), this is a great place to start and will probably resculpt your hairstyle by the power and pace with which it arrives. Sticklers for production might want to be careful, as should those who like their melodeath pure, since this is certainly sullied by other, nastier elements and less technical showmanship. On the other hand, the performances are all great, just beaten by what I feel is the band's preceding magnum opus: in the deathrace, Hell Is Here still pips this at the post.

stepford metal - 85%

Noktorn, November 27th, 2011

You have no idea how suspicious I get when I wind up agreeing with the metal scene at large about something. It happens so infrequently and in such bizarre spots that I can't help but pore over whatever it is, desperately seeking the deficiency that will allow me to reverse my opinion and brand myself as a maverick intellectual. Do you know how fucking long it took me to accept that I liked Ulcerate? I had to write a letter to my fucking congressman to settle my nerves. The Crown is a sort of similar case where, try as I might, I just can't find anything wrong with them. My love of "Eternal Death," made when the band was still known as Crown of Thorns, is perfectly safe. But "Deathrace King?" For real? I feel like it's some sort of musical sting operation trying to trick me into liking something that I'll be kicking myself in the ass for even considering a few months later. Shit, this doesn't even have the elegance and phenomenal melodic sense of their earlier work; "Deathrace King" is about as meatheaded as you get before you find yourself shirtless and half erect in a Hatebreed mosh pit. Well, perhaps that's a bit of an exaggeration, but the opening track is called "Deathexplosion." That's not the sort of thing that encourages the prospective listener to put their Art Ears on.

And you certainly have no cause to, because I'm very comfortable saying that "Deathrace King" is about as artistically significant as "Cowboys From Hell." It's an entertainment piece, and not even a considerably unique, stylish one. "Deathrace King" is the epitome of the workhorse album; gone is the band who made surprisingly nuanced and vibrant melodeath on albums like "Eternal Death," instead opting to trade in their more sophisticated style for the blue collar strains of thrash (I'm sorry, "death/thrash"- there's growly vocals and blasts sometimes.) It's a surefire recipe for disappointment and disenchantment, but despite all odds, the transition is somehow successful. While "Deathrace King" is an undeniably lesser work to the collective's albums under their prior moniker in terms of artistic relevance, it comes damn close to the more ostentatious craft of old in overall satisfaction. The switch is dramatic and one arrived at with clear intent and purpose, but somehow they manage to pull it off no worse for wear.

I'm sure I've said this about a billion times in reviews of other albums, but at its root, "Deathrace King" is heavily based on frantic, overdriven rock music. The strains of Motörhead (albeit intensified and envenomed) flow fast and thick through much of the album's riffing, as do minor yet distinct hints of Van Halen and other chronological brethren. While the rhythms are fast and the vocals tersely shouted or growled, the bulk of the album's melodic sense comes from '70s and '80s rock and roll and blues, most obviously in the sneering, self-aggrandizing solos that just barely manage to stay within the bounds of taste due to their appreciable brevity. From the more overtly metal angle: early Metallica, Anthrax, S.O.D., and (oddly enough) a surprising similarity in places to a black-excised Impaled Nazarene. Of course, all those traditional artists listed before the Finnish oddball have their particular styles amped up to a pretty severe degree, the trappings of extreme metal technique married to a songwriting style with its heart firmly set in the '80s. The roots are on fire but still recognizable, and the hints of Sabbath or Priest here and there might lead you to believe that this album is a perverse sort of revival piece.

Mentally combining other artists is really the only way to properly explain this album's sound simply because "Deathrace King" basically doesn't have a style. The fact that it is itself a formative influence on the European style of modern death/thrash is part of it, but beyond that, it's almost as though the music on "Deathrace King" has been deliberately stripped of its identifying characteristics. There's not a single element of it that isn't used verbatim by another band, past or present, and describing its sound is at once simple and wholly frustrating because it simply sounds like modern thrash metal with hints of death (calling this death/thrash, as you may have gathered, is sort of a misnomer; there's no Morbid Angel to be found and it's definitely far on the thrash side of Vader.) It's a sleek, faceless, chromed-off album, as slick and anonymous as can be, and the lack of personality seems as important to its overall nature as a unique vocal style would be to another band. "Deathrace King" isn't simply unmemorable- it seems specifically designed to not be remembered.

It seems to me that the transparent, vacuum-like nature of the music's style is a design decision, established to show off the gears underneath, like a glass car hood. Therein lies what gives this album such weight and staying power after seemingly endless listens: not the candy paint chassis, not the accurate to a millimeter dashboard GPS, but the engine itself. What "Deathrace King" lacks in nuance or aesthetics it makes up for in sheer craftsmanship: brilliant intra- and inter-song pacing, a seemingly infallible sense of riffcraft and melodic tension, and technical performances that marry second-take grit with slick digital precision. Like a deathrash "Alice in Hell" (but with exponential replay value,) "Deathrace King" seems less an attempt to make a great metal album so much as a perfect one, with every note and throaty scream precisely plotted to maximize some esoteric standard of effectiveness. It's not a sterile album, but even its gruff, '80s metal grognard soul has a mechanical edge to it. Be it in the way that stripped-down melodeath tremolo meets convulsive e-string gallops or in how the vocal and percussive rhythms dovetail to create a driving heartbeat for the listener to survive to for the disc's running time, each individual piece of this album seems designed to exacting, nearly excruciatingly tight specifications.

It seems ironic that a band which specialized in virile, romantic music would change completely into the sort of vindictively soulless machine animated on "Deathrace King," but somehow the shift seems less unnatural and more like the result of immensely talented musicians picking and choosing a particular album's goal via dartboard. "Deathrace King" is undoubtedly more exercise than art, but one executed so well that those seemingly opposite ideas drift so closely together that the difference is nearly indistinguishable. While writing this review, I've listened to the album about seven times and I still can't remember what a single track sounds like- what makes this album great, though, is that this feature doesn't matter.

Gentlemen...Start Your Screaming!!! - 94%

hells_unicorn, October 7th, 2011

For reasons that should be all but immediately apparent, The Crown’s crowning achievement is often cited as being their 4th album (2nd under their changed name) “Deathrace King”, and the laundry list of arguments for it do not include subtlety. Granted, this band has always had a fast as hell, aggressive as a spiked club toting barbarian, yet tuneful approach to writing music that defies any standard of nuance. But this album is unique amongst the band’s accomplishments up till this point in that all three of these elements are exaggerated almost to the breaking point, resulting in an album that comes off more like an extreme thrash album with harsh, toneless vocals rather than anything that would normally be associated with melodic death metal, let alone what was coming out of Gothenburg at this point.

To put things into perspective, between the machine gun precision of every single speed and blast beat, every blinding yet oddly traditional sounding mid-80s thrash riff, and the relentlessly raw throat gymnastics going on, this album actually comes off like a crack infused Overkill album with a crazed Mikael Stanne at the microphone. In fact, apart from a handful of frenzied blast sections and the barks, “Devil Gate Ride” (featuring At The Gates vocalist Tomas Lindberg) sounds like it could have been on Overkill’s “Ironbound”. It carries the same excessively fast interpretation of early 80s Motorhead and throws in a barrage of lead sections that sound like an intricate compromise between Kirk Hammett and Jeff Hanneman. Indeed, while many point out that this is easily the fastest and heaviest thing put out by this band up till this point, it’s also one of the more technical releases to occur outside of Suffocation’s little niche in the early to mid 90s.

If there is anything to complain about with regards to this album, it is that the melodic material, though while very much present, is downplayed a bit in favor of a harder edged sound. Any loose connection that this band may have shared with the likes of Dark Tranquillity or At The Gates went out the window and off beyond any human’s line of sight here. Surging riff flashers such as “Rebel Angel”, “Blitzkrieg Witchcraft” and “Total Satan” (featuring Mika Luttinen of Impaled Nazarene) thrash and blaze away at full speed in a manner as to resemble an odd mating of early 90s Sodom with late 90s Marduk. Even this album’s version of a restrained number in closer “Killing Star” merely takes 2 minutes to warm up before launching into yet another neurotic exercise in vertebrae destroying mayhem.

While in America the days of cooking from start to finish in the vain of “Reign In Blood” had been abandoned by most thrash bands and had transferred over towards a much more chaotic sound as heard in much of the New York and latter day Florida death metal scene, it seems that Sweden found a nice, happy medium in the midst of their otherwise restrained melodic death scene. It’s a safe bet that anyone who has already experienced the high octane, yet more atmospheric incarnation of The Crown that was “Hell Is Here” will probably go for it, though it’s overt thrash tendencies and more rhythmically precise character is definitely a stylistic departure. If nothing else, this band answered the question of what the future was of the brilliant revolution that Slayer and Metallica started back in 1983 circa 2000. My preference definitely goes to “Eternal Death” for its aesthetic brilliance, but it’s understandable why many view this as the pinnacle of The Crown’s career, particularly those who want an overt example of how the Teutonic Trio influenced the Scandinavian extreme metal scene.

From the bowels of hell they explode again!! - 99%

cravingforvenom, February 8th, 2011

If you thought “Hell is Here” was the fastest that The Crown could pull off, then you haven’t heard this scorcher yet. It’s hard to imagine how a band can play this ridiculously fast and yet the members manage to keep up with each other. It’s got every extreme genre in music you could ever come across, be it hardcore punk, thrash, death or even black metal. And you know what? It manages to blend all of them to create this tearing masterpiece of brutal yet catchy proportions. I mentioned in my review for the predecessor full length that this band destroyed nearly 99 percent of all Swedish extreme metal competition out there with that beast of an album. What “Deathrace King” has managed to do is completely annihilate the remainder one percent with absolute ease.

I was introduced to this band when I heard the track “Total Satan” on some compilation, the name of which I can’t quite remember. It certainly sounded like Kill Em All era Metallica sped up by nearly 5 times. That’s what sparked my interest in this Swedish outfit. Metal Blade was kind enough to release this on tape which I instantly picked up a year later for I knew that this was not going to disappoint whatsoever. The vocals courtesy of Johan Lindstrand are downright maniacal. The guy shrieks, growls, barks and even throws nasty falsettos every now and then and he seems to do it so effortlessly. The rhythm section comprises of four inhumane musicians who are as insane as Johan. The basslines, guitar riffs, leads and drums are so incredibly fast yet tight that you’d be forced to see your music player to check if you’ve accidentally switched on ‘overdrive’. And, oh yeah, I quote once again. The drummer Jaari Saarenpaa plays like an energizer bunny on a thousand fully charged batteries!!

This release boasts of 11 songs of sheer energy tripled with terrific musicianship and brilliant songwriting. While most of the tracks on this cut try to challenge the speed of sound, there are a couple of tracks that are bound to surprise you in a rather groovy manner, not too far removed from perhaps White Zombie or mid era Sepultura( without the silly tribal rhythms though). The bands initiates the onslaught with the aptly titled “Death Explosion” making their intentions clear that they just want to shred the shit out of the listener with this volcanic barrage of riffs and drum thuds. The fury continues with three more speed blazers, one of which is called “Devil Gate Ride” with a mid section full of brutally fast E-minor punk riffs and blastbeats till they hit the first pit stop and decide to go Sabbath like heavy on the kickass “Vengeance”.

The second half of the album continues in the same fashion with Total Satan (as mentioned earlier) being the fastest, Blitzkrieg Witchcraft the catchiest, Dead Man’s Song the grooviest and the finisher “Killing Star” ending this fine record in epic style with an intro lead guitar solo so beautifully written it would feel like a nostalgic throwback to the eighties charm.

An offering of such barbaric nature certainly qualifies it as one of the fastest heavy metal records ever recorded. You have your brutal death metal, your norsecore black metal or even the spineless offshoot of grindcore known as goregrind but this Grade A bestiality is likely to give them new lessons in violence without losing sense of rhythm or catchiness. Highly recommended!!

..with a sign of the horns.. - 100%

The_Boss, December 8th, 2009

A very special band indeed, The Crown took the metal scene by storm with the debut Hell is Here, a brutal and raw thrashing death metal album; though originally creating some material under the title Crown of Thorns, I'd argue it wasn't until the 2000 output Deathrace King that they really hit their stride and fucking slayed the shit out of the competition. Yeah, you have your Dark Tranquillity albums, the expansive stuff from At the Gates, and even the occasional spin from In Flames early shit... but you haven't really heard Swedish death melodic death metal until you've fucking heard Deathrace King.

There are a few things that need you must be warned about at first before listening to this album. Holy shit, the pure raw fucking aggression and energy that is bestowed upon the listener's ears from every aspect of this album. Everything, I mean everyfuckingthing from the intensity and tight drumming to the melodic and catchy riffs to the insanely pissed off vocals. Right off the bat, Deathexplosion sums up your listening experience in a mere 4 minutes, the intro riff drives your skull and builds up with the pummeling drums. The most obvious factor that this album will leave you with is the sheer speed and delivery of this album. Guitarists Marko and Marcus are masters, with lightning fast riffs that simply do not let you go, they're so fucking fast yet they still know how to maintain melody and write catchy fucking hooks! Every song on here has a catchy riff that leaves itself drilled in your brain and refuses to leave. The build up intro on Back from the Grave leading straight into that melodic and catchy riff going into the every glorious chorus is something you cannot forget; especially with that scream about halfway through.. holy shit!

When I listen to Deathrace King, there is an overwhelming sense of pure pride and glory; mainly displayed through the prowess of Johan Lindstrand and his vocal performance. Seriously, this album would not be what it is without this guy. Lindstrand is easily one of my favorite extreme metal vocalists and he's highly underrated, his performance here is utterly one of the best I've ever come across on any extreme metal album. Even with two guest appearances, one from the unholy god himself, Tomas Lindberg, on Devil Gate Ride, Lindstrand proves his worth and practically steals the fucking show! Devil Gate Ride features Lindstrand and Lindberg trading off choruses and it's simply one of the best songs I've ever heard. Holy fuck, it's so massive and powerful... so fucking epic and glorious. Lindberg has been around longer and it's apparent Lindstrand has taken a heavy influence in the raspy aggressive vocal deliverance. Trading off in the chorus, Lindstrand has such a passionate and purely raw voice throughout this album it's left me absolutely amazed he would be able to talk in a normal voice after performing on these songs. The thing I love about this album is that all the songs are just simply so damn catchy and fun to sing along and pump your fist in the air to. Executioner - Slayer of the Light is a great example of this catchy chorus, I mean seriously;

"Executioner...executioner...executioner... Slayer of the light!
Desecrator...violator...devastator... Messenger of death!"

Vengeance shows a slight change of pace from the rest of the album, as Lindstrand and co. slow things down a bit for a menacing and showcase an atmosphere of pure fucking evil. A sincerely devilish like melody and groove dominates this song with fancy lead guitar shredding all over the place. Lindstrand utterly shred his voice chords, this was the first song I heard by The Crown and what a badass introduction.

"STRAIGHT DOWN TO HELL I WILL GO, I'LL TAKE YOU DOWN WITH ME!"

An unforgettable performance, Lindstrand is a master of his art, embodying the dark lord himself throughout this album, in such a glorious manner. It's amazing how proud and passionate he is throughout this album, so pissed off yet so proud to be in praise of the rebel angel, simply badass. Rebel Angel, my personal favorite off this album, with a catchy as fuck riff and a kickstart growl, it also has some of my favorite lyrics ever;

"Inhale glory, exhale fear, no god or master to make me kneel.
Inhale courage, exhale force... I am Lord I break your laws.
I raise my fist in blasphemy with a sign of the horns,
in praise of the rebel angel."

So badass, so glorious and so trademark for The Crown. Praising Satan and racing at the speed of darkness is what The Crown does best and Deathrace King is the best display, being their masterpiece that they could never top. The album is top heavy though, with all of the best and catchiest songs on the first half. I Won't Follow is a fun little sing along, though it's hard to choose just one as I know the words and sing along to all the songs 'cuz they're all so damn catchy! Total Satan and Blitzkrieg Witchcraft are two more fun songs that easily fit in with the rest of the album but Dead Man's Song is more of a filler, less memorable for the most part. There is nothing wrong with this album, seriously I have no complaints except maybe it's not long enough; even still they play so fast it could be 2 hours long and still feel like 24 minutes long! Deathrace King is a special album, its melodic death metal, but it's also heavily influenced in thrash metal and being from Sweden The Crown have lots of influences all over the place. Clearly At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity ranging to Venom and all that is evil.

Deathrace King is their triumphant masterpiece, The Crown have achieved legendary status in the underground and their is nothing wrong with this except the mere fact that somehow they still don't get all the recognition that they deserve and particularly this album. This album isn't your typical pussy Gothenburg tripe, though I like a lot of Gothenburg, this is pure in your face, pissed the fuck off, hail Satan, get the fuck out of my way, thrashing death fucking METAL. If you don't like this, the Rebel Angel has you in your sights and you might has well fuck off and die this is what we're all fucking about!

Badassery personified - 94%

Kilroy, March 19th, 2007

When I first got into underground metal, I was literally angry at the mainstream for largely hiding the coolest music I'd ever heard from me. Now it's hard to imagine my life without such great albums as Megadeth's Rust in Peace, Arch Enemy's Burning Bridges, Vio-lence's Eternal Nightmare, and basically the entire Death discography in it. Obviously these little revelations get more scarce for me all the time, but I still sometimes discover an album that re-ignites that rage. My latest discovery is The Crown's crushing statement Deathrace King, frequently overlooked by far too many fans of heavy music with great guitar work and powerful hooks.

And sweet mother of all that's holy, the HOOKS here are insane. For the purists out there, stop clamming up, it's okay to have catchy riffs. Dismember, Iron Maiden, and even Mayhem have hooks, yet you'd be hard-pressed to regard their output as anything less than metal. The Crown have the kind of hooks that every metalhead knows best: the kind that get you driving 100+mph while banging your head. (Not that I've ever done this...no sir!) Thrash has been distilled to its purest essence here, thrown into a blender with melodic death and a pinch of death 'n' roll, and then focused into a massive metal fist. "Rebel Angel," "Deathexplosion," "Total Satan," and "Blitzkrieg Witchcraft" are all more than willing to pick you up and slam you into the nearest wall. Even slower stuff such as "Vengeance" is pretty cool.

While we're on the subject, check that solo near the end of "Dead Man's Song" for an example of how this band can still make the slower, groovier stuff completely rule. Leads are not really dominant on this album, but even the noisy thrash leads that crop up destroy most of the competition. So when the guitars decide to take melodic control, the end result is destruction. Without the melodies to open and close the epic finisher "Killing Star," it wouldn't have quite the same heft; as is, it's like someone took "Hallowed Be Thy Name" and made it about 300 percent more evil. You won't really hear the bass guitar most of the time, but the power that the riffs and impressive drumming (great fills and blastbeats that are never excessive) add will probably keep you from noticing.

But the biggest shocker of all is how stupidly heavy Johan Lindstrand's voice is. This guy is absolutely nuts. He's not particularly guttural or anything, but he sounds like he's tearing himself apart to get the words out yet somehow doing it with respectable clarity. That rawness is comparable to Johan Liiva as was mentioned by another reviewer, but the end result is squarely between Tomas Lindberg (who guests on the highlight "Devil Gate Ride" and almost gets overpowered!) and Ihsahn of Emperor. In fact, the Ihsahn comparison is most obvious on "Executioner - Slayer of the Light," which shows some pretty overt black metal influence without switching totally into the style. I actually am the type to prefer clean vocals, but when death grunts are done so perfectly, you can't help but bow. Lindstrand is one of only a few people I've heard doing this style who doesn't even sound human anymore; a demented skeleton seems like a more fitting appearance for this lunatic. Listen to that absolutely ridiculous ascending shriek in "Back From The Grave" and tell me you didn't feel your nuts shrink a little.

I was actually going to give this album a slightly lower score because it's not quite classic-level, but every time I spin it, it gets better and even more badass than the last time. There's not a bad song on here, the intensity is comparable to the best metal has to offer, and not one second of it wimps out or does less than exactly what it's supposed to do. If Deathrace King were a movie, it would be filled with explosions, dark plot turns and massive gun battles. This is the Dirty Harry of melodic death metal, so if you're feeling lucky, get this thing and be prepared for a bullet in the face.

Their Crowning Achievement - 96%

Dark_Mewtwo1, October 29th, 2005

The Crown is one of those bands that everyone in the metal underground knows about, yet they are still so rarely mentioned it's mind-boggling. They have released quality albums under the Crown of Thorns moniker and The Crown, it's a huge suprise. When I first tried to listen to this band, I picked this album up just for the album cover (which looks completely badass), and the BORN TO RACE on the back of the album. Well, I am very happy I did pick this up.

The album kicks off with the amazingly badass Deathexplosion, an anthem for all death metal fans, with the trademark The Crown brutality. Right away, Johan Lindstran's vocals just catch you, he's an extremely, criminally underrated death metal vocalist in the mold of Johan Liiva, in which he gives you emotion and raw energy in his vocals, not just the cookie-cutter styled guttural vocals (that's still cool but you get my point) or the pussy Gothenburg-vocals. The guitar work is very melodic, very well done, with some brutal riffs along with some great melodies expected from a band coming out of Sweden nowadays. The drumming, oh fuck, the drumming is excellent! Fuck the boring thrash drumming with one fill every two songs, this is an all-over speed fest with interesting fills and rolls everywhere you look. This guy deserves some sort of medal for his drumming on all of The Crown's albums, very underrated dude indeed! His double bass drumming is just amazingly fast.

And fast is what this band is good at, seamlessly combining the fast riffing with those great melodic riffs and kickass solos. Executioner - Slayer of the Light is a great example of it, with a badass solo being pushed to the limit with Janne's punishing drums. The next couple of songs, Back to the Grave and Devil Gate Ride, are two of my all-time favorite The Crown tracks, with some sheer brutal speed on Back to the Grave, and having one of the most memorable, catchy choruses that this band has ever done. Johan really does a great job pushing the vocals on this song. Devil Gate Ride has a great guest appearance by Tomas Lindberg, another superb vocalist, and they trade off verses behind that amazing rhythm section. Vengeance slows it down, making this song the ugly duckling of the album, but an excellent track that shows that this band isn't just speed and Satanism. The rest of the album follows the mold of the first 4 songs, with some stand out tracks like I Won't Follow and Total Satan (with another guest vocalist). The Crown is one band worth checking out if you love the speed and brutality of death metal. I highly recommend this album.

Death-thrash, the way it was meant to be done - 93%

translucent2you, February 3rd, 2005

OK, this album is badass. It's not epic, it's not progressive, it's not really all that original, and it's not evil. It's just fast, catchy, heavy and badass. And fast. And badass. It is the perfect example of what the almost non-existing genre of death-thrash should be, making predecessors such as Beneath the Remains and more recent Testament albums proud.

Anyways, this is an album to drive to, if you know you will be driving fast. Hell, the album is called Deathrace King, and it says "Born To Race" on the back. The songs definitely retain individual hooks and melodies, but they also kind of blend together well to make driving background music.

Though I like the entire album, it is mainly the first five songs that make neck hurt (and not just because they're first). "Deathexplosion" and "Executioner?Slayer of the Light" come out of the gate so fast you almost don't know what hit you. Fantastic guitar/drum interplay, especially at these speeds, and surprisingly well thought out and placed melodies, once again, at these speeds. We see these elements throughout the entire album, but it when they are done so fast, it just really points out that these guys know what the hell they're doing.

"Back From the Grave" slows it down a little, then "Devil Gate Ride" picks it back up with a guest appearance by Tomas Lindberg (their future vocalist after Johan left). And then comes my favorite part of the entire album, "Vengeance." "Vengeance" is by far the slowest song on the album, which make it even more amazing that a band as fast as The Crown makes it work so well. Even though no part of the album really sounds evil, this song definitely would come closest. The Crown doesn't really differ enough aside from speed and how well their songs are arranged, so you will just have to see for yourself how this song is special.

As for the rest of the album, it is still good, but my mind will start to wander because the first half was so intense. Mika Vitun Luttinen from Imapled Nazarene makes a guest appearance on "Total Satan." If you ever get to see these guys, do it, for me. I was so psyched because they were supposedly booked to play a show here (in North Carolina in '02 or '03), but they never made the arrangements, so I was very pissed. Anyways, get this album. It's badass. And fast. And badass.

Born to Race! - 93%

stefan86, November 13th, 2004

The day I heard the news about The Crown breaking up was quite a sad day for me since I've always loved this band. All their CD's, from the evil and primally melodic "Eternal Death" to the quite modern-sounding "Possessed 13" and "Crowned In Terror" are very enjoyable. But this one is their peak. It's incredibly fast and every song features catchy and evil choruses that other bands can only dream of coming up with.

The guitar and drum work on this CD is just plain awesome. It's a great mix of Thrash and Death totally free of Gothenburg influences, there's even some punk influences in some songs like "Rebel Angel". The drumming from Janne Saarenpää is incredible. He really shows why he is one of my favourite drummers on this CD. He is so fucking fast and at the same time his beats have a true rock n' roll feel to them.

As for the songs, I find almost every song on this album to be excellent. The first four songs are just brilliant. All of them are fast as hell with great riffs and catchy sing-along choruses. "DeathExplosion" is one of The Crown's most well-known songs and it certainly deserves it. A catchy as hell Death Metal anthem. "Executioner/Slayer of The Light" is my favourite Crown song. Very satanic and incredibly fast. Another catchy chorus as well. "Back From The Grave" is just a typical The Crown with the mentioned qualitys of the 2 tracks
before it."Devil Gate Ride" features a very cool guest vocal performance by Tomas Lindberg where he and Johan exchanges vocal lines in a insanely high tempo. Other songs that need to be mentioned are "Blitzkrieg Witchcraft" and "Killing Star"."Blitzkrieg Witchcraft" is one of The Crown's most well-known anthems that feature incredibly thrashy riffing as well as their ultimate sing-along chorus. The other songs are all good as well.

On the whole, this album is one of the best metal CD's to ever come out of Sweden. Anyone who enjoys fast, punishing and catchy music in the vein of older bands like Slayer and Testament performed in a Death Metal manner should certainly love this. I know I do.