Sometimes you can lose track of certain bands and I have to admit The Crown are one of those bands, not through my neglecting their output but because the fuckers split up and reformed without me even realising. Anyway they're back and by fuck, they mean business. Always operating at the extreme end of the Scandinavian Thrash realms, in their last 3 albums 'Deathrace King', 'Crowned In Terror' and the awesome 'Possessed 13' they produced the absolute pinnacle of aggressive thrash. So, how has a six-year hiatus affected things? Well, they just seem hungrier, more pissed off and even more capable of taking your head off at a hundred paces.

As the opening title track rips you a new arsehole, courtesy of the kind of aggressive, high-speed riffing that used to make The Haunted so blistering when they burst onto the scene, you know you ain't on no commercially astute melodic death bandwagon. You're on the real fucking, "take your legs off at the knee" death trip. Fuck yeah. 'Angel Of Death 1839' harks back to the precision brutality of 'Possessed 13' and you realise that new vocalist Jonas Stalhammer easily fills the shoes of his illustrious predecessors. Having had the luxury of being able to record this album in guitarist Marco Tervonen's home studio, they've obviously been able to take the time needed to separate the wheat from the chaff and make sure that all ten songs are bang on the money. And whilst 'The Tempter And The Bible Black' takes the tempo down a tad, allowing an absolutely monstrous mid-section riff to rip through your mid-section, it's the utterly relentless thrash aggression of 'Soul Slasher', 'Blood OD' and 'Age Of Iron' that wins the day. The pace and aggression exuded by the band is utterly infectious and the precision of the musical performances is peerless particularly on 'Through Eyes Of Oblivion'. I defy any Slayer, Kreator, Pestilence or Possessed fan to not go absolutely apeshit to this song.

With bands seemingly content to further their careers at the expense of their integrity and loyalty to the style of music which made them start in the first place, The Crown are a wonderful breath of fetid air. If you loved the time when thrash was obnoxious, heavy and fast as fuck simultaneously and had no yearning for commercial acceptance then get this fucking monster. All we need now is a Carnal Forge comeback and the salvation of Swedish metal truly is complete.

www.myspace.com/thecrownonlineswe