Crown, The - Deathrace King (2000)^{Release ID: 4042}

I first got into Swedish extreme metallers The Crown back in the mid-1990's. They were still called Crown of Thorns at the time I picked up their first two albums through the tape trading scene & I had time for both of them too, particularly a track called "The Lord of the Rings" from their debut album "The Burning" which became somewhat of an anthem for me back in 1995. I wouldn't become aware of the band under their more well-known moniker of The Crown until my return to metal in 2009 & it would be through 2000's "Deathrace King" which is arguably the most well-known release from the band's lengthy 34-year career. I remember finding it to be a pretty entertaining listen too if I'm not mistaken & I've always thought of it as one of The Crown's better releases. I can't say that I remember all that much of it now though as I haven't felt like revisiting it since that first foray which may be a telling fact in itself but we're about to find out.

I always thought of Crown of Thorns as a death metal band back in the day but "Deathrace King" sees The Crown expanding their horizons significantly by exploring a number of other subgenres in a tracklisting that jumps around a fair bit from a stylistic point of view. The record kicks off in really strong fashion with three of the first four songs sitting amongst the stronger inclusions of the eleven on offer & daring the listener to resist the urge to thrash around like a madman. The rest of the album is a little more hit & miss though with a couple of songs even missing the mark altogether (see the fairly flat death/speed metal of "Rebel Angel" & disappointing thrasher "Blitzkrieg Witchcraft"). Mid-paced groove metal stormer "Dead Man's Song" is probably the only track that sees The Crown upping the ante to somewhere like the levels they began the record with which is unfortunate given the promising start. I wouldn't say that there are any genuine classics here though so "Deathrace King" was never really pushing for my higher scores anyway.

The mishmash of sounds present at various times during the 49-minute run time includes thrash metal, death/thrash, melodic death metal, groove metal & speed metal but I'd suggest that the death/thrash tag is the best representation of what you can expect to hear overall. The couple of melodic death metal inclusions ("Back From The Grave" & "I Won't Follow") see me reminiscing about the band's earlier 1990's material & will no doubt remind some of you of fellow Swedes like At The Gates & Dimension Zero while the thrashier & groovier songs play in similar spaces to another group of countrymen in The Haunted. The couple of speed metal numbers take more than a few queues from German Motorhead disciples Sodom so I often find myself wondering if The Crown were experiencing a bit of an identity crisis at times as they seem to struggle for a bit of focus. The level of musicianship certainly doesn't suffer for it though & I particularly enjoy the blast-beats of drummer Janne Saarenpää.

I have to say that I've been a touch underwhelmed by my revisit to "Deathrace King" as I remembered it a little more fondly than my current day experience has portrayed. The Crown certainly hint at greater things here but never really reach the levels of the premier acts floating around the scene. I often find the better songs to have magnificent parts but rarely see them maintaining those sort of levels for a full track. Perhaps I'm not as into some of the subgenres that are toyed with as other fans might be & that's likely having an impact on my score but I can't help but feel that "Deathrace King" sits more comfortably in the third tier than it does the second which means that I'm probably not very likely to return to it in the future even though I've found it to be a generally enjoyable experience.