lista zespołów Melodic Death The Crown Deathrace King

If you thought “Hell Is Here” was the fastest that The Crown could pull off, then you haven’t heard this scorcher yet. It’s hard to imagine how a band can play this ridiculously fast and yet the members manage to keep up with each other. It’s got every extreme genre in music you could ever come across, be it hardcore punk, thrash, death or even black metal. And you know what? It manages to blend all of them to create this tearing masterpiece of brutal yet catchy proportions. I mentioned in my review for the predecessor full length that this band destroyed nearly 99 percent of all Swedish extreme metal competition out there with that beast of an album. What “Deathrace King” has managed to do is completely annihilate the remainder one percent with absolute ease.

I was introduced to this band when I heard the track “Total Satan” on some compilation, the name of which I can’t quite remember. It certainly sounded like Kill Em All era Metallica sped up by nearly 5 times. That’s what sparked my interest in this Swedish outfit. Metal Blade was kind enough to release this on tape which I instantly picked up a year later for I knew that this was not going to disappoint whatsoever. The vocals courtesy of Johan Lindstrand are downright maniacal. The guy shrieks, growls, barks and even throws nasty falsettos every now and then and he seems to do it so effortlessly. The rhythm section comprises of four inhumane musicians who are as insane as Johan. The basslines, guitar riffs, leads and drums are so incredibly fast yet tight that you’d be forced to see your music player to check if you’ve accidentally switched on ‘overdrive’. And, oh yeah, I quote once again. The drummer Jaari Saarenpaa plays like an energizer bunny on a thousand fully charged batteries!!

This release boasts of 11 songs of sheer energy tripled with terrific musicianship and brilliant songwriting. While most of the tracks on this cut try to challenge the speed of sound, there are a couple of tracks that are bound to surprise you in a rather groovy manner, not too far removed from perhaps White Zombie or mid era Sepultura( without the silly tribal rhythms though). The bands initiates the onslaught with the aptly titled “Death Explosion” making their intentions clear that they just want to shred the shit out of the listener with this volcanic barrage of riffs and drum thuds. The fury continues with three more speed blazers, one of which is called “Devil Gate Ride” with a mid section full of brutally fast E-minor punk riffs and blastbeats till they hit the first pit stop and decide to go Sabbath like heavy on the kickass “Vengeance”.

The second half of the album continues in the same fashion with Total Satan (as mentioned earlier) being the fastest, Blitzkrieg Witchcraft the catchiest, Dead Man’s Song the grooviest and the finisher “Killing Star” ending this fine record in epic style with an intro lead guitar solo so beautifully written it would feel like a nostalgic throwback to the eighties charm.

An offering of such barbaric nature certainly qualifies it as one of the fastest heavy metal records ever recorded. You have your brutal death metal, your norsecore black metal or even the spineless offshoot of grindcore known as goregrind but this Grade A bestiality is likely to give them new lessons in violence without losing sense of rhythm or catchiness. Highly recommended!!