{"id":77766,"date":"2018-03-16T09:00:10","date_gmt":"2018-03-16T14:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.toiletovhell.com\/?p=77766"},"modified":"2018-03-16T05:06:59","modified_gmt":"2018-03-16T10:06:59","slug":"review-the-crown-cobra-speed-venom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/review-the-crown-cobra-speed-venom\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Crown – Cobra Speed Venom<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Am I hella psyched about this? Could be.<\/p>\n

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As much as I’d like to play it cool and be all detached and stuff, I just can’t with this one. As mentioned in the recent interview<\/a> with The Crown<\/strong>, I’ve been quite a fan for about fifteen years now. As was also mentioned, it was by no means a safe bet that this album would be good. Personnel changes have generally not benefited the band’s sound in the past; 2010’s Doomsday King<\/em> flatlined for most of its running time, and even singer Johan Lindstrand’s return did not yield the results many fans desired on Death Is Not Dead<\/em>. Neither album was without flashes of former glory, but overall, they had me rather apprehensive, and that led to ouright rejection upon first hearing a preview from this new record. I guess my admiration for The Crown’s earlier output had me shielding myself against another potential blow. When I eventually heard the full song, however, I let my guard down quite a bit, since “Iron Crown” sounded downright excellent. Today, I’m ridiculously glad to tell you that that was not a fluke. This album is pretty much what I wanted from The Crown, and what’s more, it actually sounds like it’s what they wanted, too. Let’s get into it.<\/p>\n

\"\"Opener “Destroyed By Madness” starts off with a foreboding cello intro, the melody of which is then taken up by the guitars. Ere long, an unceremonious transition throws everything into full gear, and the band blasts and shreds away like there’s no tomorrow. So far, so good; this is the level of aggression I was hoping for. However, if you like Deathrace King<\/em>, Crowned In Terror<\/em>, and Possessed 13<\/em> as much as I do, you’re probably not in it for sheer aggression alone. What always elevated The Crown above similar acts is the certain rock-and-roll-ish joie de vivre that they injected many of their songs with. Just listen to “Rebel Angel<\/a>” or “Kill ‘Em All<\/a>” for some good examples of that. These are the moments I was holding out for and had sorely missed on the last two outings, so what happens around the two-minute mark of “Destroyed By Madness” had me elated. “This is the point of no return \/ This is the hell where I belong,” the pre-chorus goes, and it’s not hard to hear that as a statement loudly declaring “we’re back and here to stay.” As if to enhance the sentiment, the heartily bellowed “HA!” (seriously, how great are expletives in metal<\/a>?) sends the guitars into just the kind of fun frenzy that I was talking about, not afraid to draw from a higher register as they flash across the fretboard. It feels like a moment of coming home, like the band embracing their trademark sound, and I simply love it. Similar moments follow later in the song: one is the guitar lick accompanying the transition from the bridge back to a chorus, and one is the unexpected turn it takes at the end, where they suddenly swap to a completely new riff, just as a little end tag. This part could easily have come from any of my favourite Crown albums, and I can’t help but grin.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s quite a paragraph only talking about one song, but it\u2019s important because it establishes a key aspect of the album and answers a question that I think many fans were asking themselves. It\u2019s kinda the main thing I wanted to get across in this review. To put it shortly: Yes, the spirit of The Crown is present on this record. It\u2019s sprinkled all throughout in little doses, and it really comes to the fore in songs like \u201cNecrohammer\u201d, the frantic \u201cRise In Blood\u201d, and \u201cIron Crown\u201d. In the case of the latter, I can thankfully let the song do the talking.<\/span><\/p>\n