Gothenburg, the second largest city in Sweden, has been a hotbed for the Swedish Death Metal scene in the last ten years. The Crown, previous known as Crown Of Thorns, is one of the best bands from this scene. They have just released their new album "Hell Is Here" through Metal Blade. We got in touch with Janne for an update.
1. How has the launch of "Hell Is Here" been so far ?
Itīs been great! Metal Blade has really shown their potential in
promoting an album! We have done tons of interviews and also received a
lot of great reviews from lots of zines. They also put us on a tour in
April, the "No Mercy" festival/tour with Morbid Angel, Emperor, Impaled
Nazarene, Limbonic Art and Peccatum and that one kicked some serious
ass! 11 gigs in 7 countries, almost every evening sold out, I think. We
shared the bus with Impaled Nazarene and had a really great time, all
the time, every second! The album was also released in the U.S. in
march, and weīre starting to receive quite some mails from over there,
too!
2. When and where was The Crown started ? By whom ??
I think it all started when I (Janne) started to talk to Magnus (the
bassplayer) in school, in the eighth grade or so, about putting our shit
together. It very quickly developed from an idea of just the two of us
creating some noise, to a band that actually tried to make some songs
with an actual structure. So, in the spring of 1990 we were a band with
me and Magnus and also Johan Lindstrand on the vocals and a dude called
Robert Österberg on the guitar. After a couple of months I met Marko
Tervonen who became the second guitarplayer and the first guy in the
band who knew and cared about tuning the instruments...
3. Please tell us more about your demos. Has this early material been
released on CD or is there any plans of doing so ?
We released our first demo "Forever Heaven Gone" in 1993, we sold quite
a lot of them and it actually got us a gig at the Hultsfred festival
here in Sweden. For those (all?) of you who havenīt heard of it, itīs
the biggest festival here in Sweden. I think we did quite a good job on
the demo, considering that we started to play our instruments from zero
in 1990. I am also grateful that we skipped our first recording
sessions, that were supposed to take place at the notorious Gorysound
studios back in 1992. THAT would have sounded crappy! And then, in 1994,
after Mr Österberg decided to leave the band, due to musical
differences, we rehearsed for 6 months and looked for a new
guitarplayer. At last we found gold in form of Mr Marcus Sunesson and we
entered the studio for our demo#2, "Forget the Light". That demo led us
to our first record deal on Black Sun records, who gave us an aswer
after only two or three days!
We will not release those demos on cd, since the songs, or in some
cases, parts of them are used in our songs on all our 3 records. We
still have the master recording reel of the second demo, it would be fun
to fool around with it in a studio, though...
4. I gather that you operated under the Crown Of Thorns name on your
previous two albums before you were forced to change name to The Crown.
Please give us the full story why you changed your name.
It all started in 1996 when a U.S. AOR band with the same name mailed us
about our records being available on mailorder over there. They said
that it disturbed their "huge" distribution everywhere. Well, we didnīt
give a fuck if a couple of lipstick-crybaby wimps whined at us. But then
again, we did give a shit when they got back to us in 1997 and mentioned
that some of their albums were co-produced by Mr G. Simmons & P. Stanley
of Mighty KISS, and that these guysī lawyers indeed did give a shit
about this name confusion. As we are the poorest band on earth, we donīt
have any money to hire a decent lawyer so we decided to not to try these
lawyers in court. So, we changed our name in January 1997, did a tour,
still being on our old label Black Sun Records, and got snatched up by
Metal Blade Records on our last gig on that tour, in Strasbourg, France.
5. Please present your two previous albums "The Burning" and "Eternal
Death" for us. What is your view on your earlier material in hindsight ?
Well, what can I say? The Burning was recorded in 1995 in Berno Studios
and got both us and that new record label, Black Sun, quite some
attention worldwide. The record was based on stuff written over many
years and therefor the songs differ a bit from eachother. Some people
still consider it to be our best album so far! Eternal Death was
recorded in 1997 in the same studio, and this time the record sounded
more like a record, with all songs "belonging" to eachother. Both the
songs and the sound were still inspired by classic Death Metal from the
late eighties to early nineties. Also here a few people consider it to
be our best release, I personally think Hell is Here kicks both of these
albumsī asses!
6. Your first two albums was released through Black Sun Records. Why did
you sign on that label and what is your experiences with Black Sun
Records ???
We signed on Black Sun because back in those days we were ready to sign
anything that even looked like a record contract. Well, in this case we
were extremely lucky because this happened to be a very good record
contract! As we all know, many labels very often rip new, unexperienced
bands like us off faster than a beautiful french girl can say
blueberrypie...
As I said, we were very lucky! Black Sun was a new, serious label that
was totally honest to their bands. They did a great job, considering
their size and that they were brand new in the Death Metal business. So
we kinda grew together, in the beginning. So if any up `n coming bands
want a good deal, try that one out, you might be lucky! Just be sure to
kick Rolfīs ass when you want shit to be done, heīs sometimes a bit
slow. I think Rolf agrees on this one..haha!!!
7. Why did you leave Black Sun Records and join Metal Blade ???
Two reasons: Metal Blade is so much bigger, with bigger potential and
greater experience. The second reason is that Metal Blade works in a
really furious pace so when there is shit to be done, Metal Blade does
it right away!
We actually signed for Metal Blade mainly because Rolf forgot to send us
a new contract after our old one had expired. If Rolf had been quicker,
we would still be on Black Sun, because we didnīt know that Metal Blade
were even interested in us in the first place!
8. Your new album "Hell Is Here" has just been released. Please tell us
more about this album. For example the recording, the writing process
and the featured tracks.
The whole album began to take serious form after our first european
tour, along with Sacrilege, who were helped out on the vocals by Thomas
Lindberg (ex At the Gates). This was in January 1998. We had felt on a
couple of songs in the autumn of 1997 but we were more focused on being
prepared for that tour. (Which really sucked, Booby Trap Promotions can
and will fuck off!) We had never been this prepared to enter a studio,
we worked rock hard and rehearsed every day for the last month. I also
got up like 8 in the mornings and rehearsed by my self (of course backed
up by my friend RW-100...) and worked on the details, so for me it was
two rehearsals a day!
It was the first time we really felt that we were going to record an
album that would sound exactly like we wanted it to, both on the
production and the song structures. About the tracks? Well, I canīt
remember that many details but I remember that Death by My Side was
really hard to get used to, Iīm pretty used to keeping up the pace. The
Devil and the Darkness is also easy to remember because it really sucks
lots of energy from my poor body.
9. In my view; your new material is much more mature and balanced than
your older stuff. The introduction of guitar harmonies and guitar solos
has improved your material, in my view. What was your approach to your
new album ?
I definitely like your view; you have kinda answered this question byt
the question itself. Our approach was quite simple in a way. We wanted
to top our previous albums in any possible way so we put the weight on
our personal efforts, on doing our individual shit as good as possible
in the studio. The songs in general felt like "more Crown" than ever,
even with the variations and all so all we had to worry about was to do
a good work in the studio!
10. Please tell us more about the lyrics.
As I donīt write any of the lyrics, I canīt help you that much. But I
can say that itīs not that easy to get Magnus deeper to the explaining
either, he just tells me to draw my own conclusions. I sure as Hell like
his lyrics anyway, especially "The Poison" that is about pushing all
kinds of poison into the body, knowing that it isnīt that good for you,
but you do it anyway. The lyrics can really make a great song even
better! I would quit the band today if our future lyrics would deal with
politics, nature pollution or stuff like that.
11. .
.and your religious, political and philosophical views ?
Religion? Weīre all atheists (as far as I know...), we do our shit like
we want to, we donīt give a fuck about what other people do and we hope
that people donīt give a fuck about us. We get inspired by anything, I
mostly get inspired by dealing with asshole people everyday. The more
religious or/and politically involved a person is, the more i get pissed
off and therefore I can play faster/better! (I should almost thank the
swedish police force for keeping my pace up in my drumming!) I think
that our philosophy in general is to live our lifes doing what we want
to do, play the music we love to play, drink beer, hunt down girls and
listen to all great music there is. Well, thatīs most definitely my
philosophy.
12. How is the Death/Black Metal scene in Sweden at the moment ?
I really donīt know... I havenīt found any new great Metal albums here
in Sweden for a while now... Many bands, like those who back in the days
jumped on the Black Metal trend, seem to jump on that retro thing now.
Fuck, I donīt know...but I get an impression that all the Metal genres
in general are beginning to break the barriers between them and instead
work on doing great Metal music and thatīs fucking great! Putting labels
on music shouldnīt be that necessary. You can never describe a bandīs
music style with two or three words anyway... Descriptions like "Ambient
Wolf and Art" really make me laugh...
13. Are any members of The Crown involved in other bands/projects ???
No. Sideprojects suck ass. A side project is a simple indication that
tells that the band should work more on their material together, the
break-up seems to be close
14. What is your plans for the rest of 1999 and next year ??
Weīre currently working on our album #4 and we will enter the studio in
september or so. Weīre also eagerly waiting for the Wacken festivals in
august, will be awesome! Thereīs of course lots of other stuff going on
but, as always, itīs not worth mentioning before itīs all set. Things
can really fuck up so easy
So weīll keep on working on album #4 at any
possible free time, and when we donīt do that, weīll be somewhere
chilling, with a cold beer and Metal music bursting out from the stereo!
15. Where can The Crown be reached ? Any websites ?
So far we only have a little page on the Metal Blade site . Weīre supposed to learn how to make our own website but no-one in the band is that eager to sit by a computer that much, I fucking HATE my computer!
You can also check out us on our old record company site , thereīs some cool merchandise left if some of you readers are interested!
16. Anything you want to add to this interview ?
Thanx for this interview, of course! And to all of you readers: You who
havenīt heard us, check out our new album! If youīre into some brutal,
intense Death Metal with cool "non-Gothenburg" melodies, Iīm sure a
bunch of you will like it! HELL IS HERE!!! Let the Metal & beer flow !
You can reach The Crown at:
The Crown
Box 6045
461 06 Trollhättan
SWEDEN
E-mail: evil.caveman@mailbox.calypso.net