Melodic Rock
Frontiers Music srl
Release Date – January 27th 2023
Line Up:
Alexander Strandell – Vocals
Love Magnusson – Guitar
Jona Tee – Guitar/Keyboards/Backing Vocals
John Leven – Bass
Christian Lundqvist
Tracklist:
1 – Operation Phoenix
2 – Champions
3 – In The Name Of The Fallen
4 – Super Trooper
5 – Ready To Run
6 – Juliette
7 – The Last Of Us
8 – Just Believe
9 – Roar
10 – Victorious
11 – Northern Lights
Crowne are a Scandinavian supergroup that includes members of Art Nation, H.E.A.T, Dynazty, The Poodles, and Europe. Their debut was released in 2021 and was well received but this is a different beast.
Opening With the title track it’s immediately clear that these guys mean business. It sounds huge with Europe’s John Leven driving it along with a steady bass line before ‘Champions’ continues the great work. ‘In The Name Of The Fallen’ has a chugging riff verging into power metal and ‘Super Trooper’ takes the intensity up a level and gives Dynazty guitarist Love Magnusson space to shred. ‘Ready To Run’ is a melodic rock masterpiece – loads of swirling synths over a crunchy riff and vocals that dip and soar courtesy of the superb Alexander Strandell from Art Nation. With ‘Juliette’ I expected the lighter waving ballad but instead, we get a melodic heavy rocker that gallops along before the huge intro of ‘The Last Of Us’ gives us more power metal with a mid-paced fist pumper then its back to the hard rock with ‘Just Believe’. ‘Roar’ brings the ‘woooaaah’s’ then goes steaming off like a runaway train leading us to ‘Victorious’ which gets darker before the final track ‘Northern Lights’ gets into a Celtic vibe.
Talk about impressed – this is good. It’s immense and verges on power metal but holds back just enough so it doesn’t sound cheesy. If you like classy metal/hard rock with loads of riffs, soaring vocals, and lush keyboards then I cannot recommend this highly enough. Superb.
Score: 9/10
Reviewed by: Smudge
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