The Crown – "Crown of Thorns"

This is pretty much organized auditive violence

Man, I remember tripping on this little record called "Deathrace King" (2000) by this little band of Swedes called The Crown back when it'd just come out. It was some of the most badass shit I'd ever heard. I mean, there were songs on there called "Blitzkrieg Witchcraft" and "Total Satan". Yes, the tongue-in-cheek factor was there, but nowhere near front and center. Because front and center, there was mayhem. (No, not the band Mayhem, ya dumb cunt.)

Like too many other fine groups to mention, I didn't follow The Crown. Too much new and especially old stuff to catch up on. But listening to this 12th long-player of theirs, I don't get the feeling that much has changed under the group's fierce death thrash banner. And I sure as shit don't get the feeling that anything would have to, either.

In a nutshell, this is extreme metal close to perfected. From blasphemous, violent A to blasphemous, violent Z, "Crown of Thorns" (named after the group's original name) is a veritable showcase of just exactly how to metal.

Variation is not why anyone's here. In fact, when The Crown are at their best, it's not when they're taking things down a notch, but when they're ripping it up.

Opener "I Hunt With the Devil" has it all. An uppercut-punchy, chromatic build-up, a sudden hijacking by a dramatic black metal style theme riff, a modulation outta nowhere, and, again, front and center, a reckless energy and confrontational attitude that makes these very words sound so very trivial compared to how bestially intense this whole damn record actually sounds.

Outta the way up front: I'm judging the extended 55-minute version of the album featuring three bonus tracks. And with material like this, and even with the variation that is going on here, just short of an hour can seem like a bit of a long time. But that variation does reveal itself relatively shortly. Follow-up "Churchburner" is a triplet-feel midtempo kinda deal, both its lead theme and solo touching upon the melodic, but doing so without transgressing into poppy – an art perfected by few metal bands.

Perfecting this art, then, is "Martyrian", too fast and angry to ever become pandering to anything, but featuring a palatable cadence and lead guitar, culminating in a gem of a heroically juicy, melodic lead fanfare theme that will get stuck in your head. In fact, the entire album culminates right there with it. Which is not to say that the rest is uninteresting or poor in any way, though, the angry wasp-like tremolo figure of the extra-fast and -short "The Agitator", for example, being another stand-out element in another stand-out track.

The Crown is easily one of the most overlooked bands in the entire death thrash subgenre, and "Crown of Thorns" is easily the most metal album of 2024.

The equal parts shouty and raspy vocals are monotonous by the very literal meaning of that word. But they're hella fucking beastly, and variation is not why anyone's here. In fact, when The Crown are at their best, it's not when they're taking things down a notch, but when they're ripping it up. A track like the blast-y "Howling at the Warfield" justifies the very existence of metal itself. How often do you find yourself listening to any album, thinking anything similar? And "God-King" features a sporadic C-part with a riff that could not be translated into any other musical genre – also, its devil-may-care drum fills finally makes me look up who the drummer is, because that dude fucking tears it up. (Seems like the band got a new rhythm section coupla years back. Oh well.)

Towards the end of a thing like this, that constant energy may either leave you hypnotized or disengaged. 13 songs including bonus tracks are a bit too many. In fact, four songs including one bonus track should have been scrapped, and two bonus tracks kept on the album: "Eternally Infernal" somehow manages to be the most memorable and, indeed, the most infernal track on this entire piece of magnificence, which is impressive. Even more impressive, then, is the even faster and even more infernal closer "Mind Collapse", making the entire damn thing go out with a bang of mind-blowing proportions.

Not a whole lotta concluding up in this one. The Crown is easily one of the most overlooked bands in the entire death thrash subgenre, and "Crown of Thorns" is easily the most metal album of 2024. A litmus test of whether you're into proper metal or not.

Rating: 5 out of 6

Genre: Death thrash
Release date: 11/10/2024
Label: Metal Blade
Producer: Marko Tervonen + Jonas Kjellgren