Interview with The Crown

The Crown further known as "Crown of Thorns" have released with "Hell is Here" an really great Death Metal CD. Janne, the Drummer of the Band, gave me some interesting statements and answers ....

First I will congratulate you for this brutal, aggressiv and mighty album called "Hell is Here". And when I hear it, it sounds really like the hell is here!

Thanx man!!! That´s great to hear! We really have put all our efforts to this album and worked on it day and night. We are very satisfied ourselves so it´s great to hear that people like it!

After the release of "Eternal Death" and the following tour it became really quiet of your band. What have you done in this time ´til the release of "Hell is here"?

Well, we were pretty lazy. We just waited for the touring and worked on the new material kinda slowly. When we got back from the tour (european tour in january with Sacrilege) we started to work like animals again! The tour and the people at the gigs gave us new energy and we were really eager to get to the studio again, and after that again do what we love most: play live!

You´ve changed your label. What is the reason?

Metal Blade saw us live on our last gig in Strasbourg, France and they really liked us. So when we were about to sign a contract for another album for Black Sun Records, Metal Blade turned up and put up an offer we couldn´t resist. We chose Metal Blade simply because they are bigger and they work much faster. They have also been around for so damn long that they really know how to put up the procedure for the release of an album, the advertisement and the touring.

"Hell is here" sounds to me very dark, angry and mega-aggressive. When you wrote the songs and recorded the album were you in this aggressiv mood?

Yeah, sure! We felt that we were reaching a big goal; to do the album exactly the way we wanted it, the songs, the lyrics, the sound and the right atmosphere, that kick-ass-atmosphere! We kinda got really furious and and just pounded out everything as hard as we could. I think we had charged that aggressivity partly because the autumn of 97 was so lame and because there weren´t that many good record releases that we could dig. I still haven´t heard a record that tops the last At the Gates album…

Is there a concept behind the album or what messages are behind the songs? Tell me something about a few songs. 1999-Revolution 666 is about the Armageddon???

I (Janne) asked Magnus and he didn´t really explain it that deep. It´s always up to the listener to draw his/her own conclusions. It is based on Nostradamus´ predictions. My opinion is that it´s a song that tells that now would be a cool time to fuck up everything and start it all over from the beginning. I sure love the lyrics more and more, especially "The Poison" which is about us pushing more and more poison into our bodies knowing that it gets worse and worse. Basically the lyrics are about everything we like; violence, war, death, blood, metal, destruction, sex and all that yummy stuff!

Some journalists wrote, that your music isn´t Death Metal, you´ve changed the style into Hardcore. In my Opinion your music isn´t Hardcore, in spite of, I think it´s extreme Metal with a lot of DeathMetal-Influences. (The RhythmSection and the guitar aren´t Hardcore!). How will you describe the style of The Crown.

It´s really cool that you enjoy the album without picking on details. We play Death Metal. Pure and simple. Of course people don´t think it is pure Death Metal because, like our friend Callahan tells us: "Opinions are like assholes; everyone´s got one". My opinion is that Death´s "Leprosy" is pure death metal. And we don´t sound like it at all. We just play Death Metal the way we want to hear it putting everything we like to the songs and just trying to do our best. Luckily there are people who appreciate our music and don´t waste their time trying to put "the right label" to our music.

Have you planned some live activities now after the release of "Hell is Here"?

We are going to do the No Fear festival/tour in april in europa. I don´t know exactly what bands it will feature but I know it will be a KILLER tour!!! We will also do a gig at Wacken festivals `99! So right now we are hoping that there also will be a tour before april because playing live is what we want to do in the first place! We want to bring hell to every possible town in the world!

Please tell me in a few words a little bit of the history and development of The Crown and the musicians of the band. What are the maininfluences to the members of The Crown in the musical and personal sight.

We started off barely being able to hold our instruments in `90 and now we are releasing our third album which we are very satisfied with. During this period we had only one line-up change: our first guitarist wimped out and made way to Marcus to fill in the space perfectly in 1994. The most important thing in a band is that the same guys get along. Then there will be a lot less problems with getting where you want to. The development during these eight years have felt natural, even if it has been really tough sometimes. We think that our songs sound more and more "Crown" and as we learn to play together we experiment more, trying to preserve the brutality and the "Crown" sound. It´s all simply about Death Metal anyway.

Metallica, Slayer, Motörhead, Paradise Lost, Morbid Angel, At the Gates and Deicide are some bands I´m sure everybody in The Crown likes and definitely are major influences. Death´s "Leprosy", Metallica´s "Ride the Lightning", Hanoi Rocks´s "Back to Mystery City", Morbid Angel´s "Altars of Madness", Kreator´s "Pleasure to Kill", Deicide´s "Legion", Impaled Nazarene´s "Ugra Karma" and last but definitely not least, At the Gates´s "Slaughter of the soul" are albums I can´t live without !!!

I think you can´t live only from making music. How do you earn your money to pay your invoices and other things.

Some of us have boring daytime jobs and others are unemployed and get some money from the state or whatever. Paying the bills with money you don´t have is really the worst part in this way of life. But then, on the other side, getting out on a tour and seeing the fans really makes it worth it! The mailing and all these interviews also keep us going on rock hard. We really don´t envy the people that go to their dull jobs every fucking day and fall asleep with their remote controls in the sofa every fucking evening. It isn´t supposed to be easy either, what kind of a pussy would wine all the time when it is possible to make sacrifices and live this lovely Metal life!? We just try to forget the dull life outside the touring and rehearse, fuck, drink beer and party as often as we can!

How do you see the actual situation of the traditional Death Metal and where will it go?

It feels like the early nineties Death Metal scene is coming back in a big way. I was so disappointed when it felt like everybody left the Death Metal to follow the Black Metal trend. People have also been into the 80´s heavy metal thing for a short while now but it doesn´t seem to last long. As long as there will be bands who don´t care about every little change in the trend, there will be excellent Death Metal. As far as we are concerned, Death Metal will never die!!!

So that was it! Thanx! And bring the Hell to us!!!

Thank you, we will! Get your asses to the No Mercy festival or Wacken in 1999…REVOLUTION 666!!! Take care, kick ass and eat more pussy!

The Crown
Box 6045 461 06
Trollhättan
Sweden