Photo by Daniel Johansson
Swedish death metal legends THE CROWN are set to release their twelfth studio album, “Crown Of Thorns”, on October 11 through Metal Blade Records. This album serves as a dynamic follow-up to 2021’s “Royal Destroyer”, featuring ten unique tracks. Guitarist Marko Tervonen states, “For me, Cobra Speed Venom and Royal Destroyer are like siblings. [We wanted] to make sure that we would take a step forward, get a bit more out of our comfort zone on “Crown Of Thorns”. We really wanted this to sound like a new, fresh album and I believe we did it.”
The album’s artwork, inspired by a bridge in their hometown of Trollhättan, reflects the band’s roots. Tervonen explains their approach, saying, “I had the idea that we should work a bit backwards. We wanted the album cover to include a bridge… It made sense to loop it all back to the town where everything started.”
Musically, the band has revitalized their sound with the addition of drummer Mikael Norén and bassist Mattias Rasmussen, as well as the return of lead guitarist Marcus Sunesson. Tervonen notes, “With Mikael, we managed to bring back a bit more of that crazy ‘Janne Saarenpää’ feel to the drumming… Mattias comes more from a punk/crust background, and he wrote ‘I Hunt With The Devil’ and ‘Mind Collapse,’ which turned out great. This is definitely a step up in many ways, changing the way we worked on the Cobra Speed Venom and Royal Destroyer albums.”
The band has also changed their guitar tuning from C back to D. Tervonen points out, “The lighter D tuning added so much better chugs and tones that we felt might be missing a bit on some of the latest records.”
This evolution is showcased in their first single, “Churchburner.” Tervonen describes the track, saying, “‘Churchburner’ starts out with a nod to ‘Postmortem’ [Slayer] but then explodes into quite a different type of monster…It has a great groove to it, and it basically has a tempo/beat that we don’t use that often. It’s mostly in triplets. It’s a very strong song with Johan being on fire here and Marcus adds a killer solo as well.”
THE CROWN:
Johan Lindstrand – vocals
Marko Tervonen – guitar
Marcus Sunesson – lead guitar
Mattias Rasmussen – bass
Mikael Norén – drums
Watch THE CROWN’s video for “Churchburner”.
Crown Of Thorns was recorded by Marko Tervonen (Studio-MT), mixed and mastered by Jonas Kjellgren (Black Lounge Studios), and will be released on jewel case CD (US), limited digipak CD with three additional studio songs (EU), and digital formats, as well vinyl in the following color variants:
Black + White Split (US)
180g Black (EU)
White Black Marbled (EU)
White Black Dust (EU – Ltd. 300)
Iron-Grey Marble (EU – LP + bonus 7″, slip mat, patch – Ltd. 500)
Find preorders at metalblade.com/thecrown.
Crown Of Thorns Track Listing:
1. I Hunt With The Devil
2. Churchburner
3. Martyrian
4. Gone To Hell
5. Howling At The Warfield
6. The Night Is Now
7. God-King
8. The Agitator
9. Where Nightmares Belong
10. The Storm That Comes
11. Eternally Infernal (Bonus Track)
12. No Fuel For God (Bonus Track)
13. Mind Collapse (Bonus Track)
THE CROWN Live:
8/20/2024 Bulgasal Festival – Västerås, SE
11/23/2024 Gothenburg Hall Of Metal – Gothenburg, SE
3/15/2025 Heidelberg Deathfest 25 – Heidelberg, DE
THE CROWN:
METAL BLADE RECORDS:
EARSPLIT ONLINE:
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