25 years...that's how long Swedish legends The Crown have been delivering their brand of melodic death metal & thrash to legions of fans around the world. Death is Not Dead is their new release on Century Media Records, and sees the return of original vocalist Johan Lindstrand to the fold. Add his return to some well put together songs that feature no shortage of bone crunching riffs and blazing solos, and you have the making of another very strong collection from these veterans.
Highlights are many, including the galloping "Iblis Bane", which features some thrilling guitar work courtesy of Marko Tervonen & Robin Sörqvist, a massive monster called "Headhunter", the raging "Struck By Lightning", and the absolutely blistering "Herd of Swine", which has arrangements so manic your head could potentially snap off from you neck with the amount of headbanging it will promote. There's even a cool cover of Paradise Lost's "Eternal" thrown in for good measure. On the down side, some songs have a sort of 'samey-ness' thing going on, but the album overall is quite heavy with some seriously crankin' production values, so overall it sounds great and really does everything it needs to do. A very solid 3.5 stars for a band that just keeps pumping out great extreme metal and shows no signs of slowing down.
See more about this release on our recent YouTube show!
Track Listing
01. Reign
02. Headhunter
03. Iblis Bane
04. Eternal (PARADISE LOST cover)
05. Struck By Lightning
06. Speed Kills (Full Moon Ahead)
07. Herd Of Swine
08. Horrid Ways
09. Ride To Ruin
10. Meduseld
11. Godeater