Album Review: The Crown - Royal Destroyer
Reviewed by Richard Oliver
Royal Destroyer seems a very apt album to be released in a week which sees the British royal family being utterly destroyed in some areas of the press and in the opinions of the general public. It is also the title of the new album from Swedish death metal heavyweights The Crown.
They originally formed in 1990 as Crown Of Thorns releasing a couple of albums of melodic death metal savagery before rebranding as The Crown and shifting to a more thrashy death metal direction which is what they have stuck with to this day. Royal Destroyer is the tenth album from the band and sees them in absolutely flesh-tearing form. The intent of this album is definitely to cave skulls in and it does this with admirable effect. Skull pulverising opener Baptized In Violence is a statement of intent and absolutely rips with crippling speed and a run time of only 01:18. The momentum keeps going with the suitably titled Let The Hammering Begin and the violently catchy Motordeath . It’s not all a million miles an hour skull smashing though as Glorious Hades slows the pace down and incorporates some melodic death metal sounds, Devoid Of Light is a groovy death metal chugfest whilst We Drift On takes the melodic elements even further being one of the most melodic songs the band have written in years. The band play with an intensity and ferocity that most bands a fraction of their age can rival with drummer Henrik Axelsson sounding like he is positively demolishing his kit whilst frontman Johan Lindstrad screams and snarls his way through the album like a man possessed.
The Crown seem to have built upon the intensity of previous album Cobra Speed Venom and have delivered their strongest album in nearly twenty years and for me easily their best since Deathrace King and Crowned In Terror. It is a perfect union of thrash and death metal which although old school at heart sounds remarkably fresh and contemporary. A wonderfully savage album.
