“Honestly, I haven’t been excited for a new release from The Crown in a long time. For one, the quality of their releases has slowly declined since their epic Hell Is Here debut back in 1999.” These cats have an uneven history with more than their share of lineup issues, but they’re back and we have opinions (and some of them are silly).
“Sure, we’ve all heard of beating a dead horse, but have you heard of D-beating a dead horse? Retro Swedish death is that rotting carcass and Bombs of Hades return once again to kick and stomp it with more Entombed and Dismember based bootery. Atomic Temples picks up right where 2012s The Serpent’s Redemption left off and delivers another overdose of unrefined Swedish death mixed with rudimentary crust punk and half baked Motörhead outtakes, and much like the last platter, it’s a fairly fun listen if you’re in the proper frame of mind.”
Bombs of Hades delivers an album of punky Swedish retro death loaded with crust and scabs. Our intrepid Steel Druhm is here to pick ’em all and find out what lies beneath. It ain’t pretty.
This will be a pretty short review and here’s why. I just can’t find all that much to say about these blokes from England. Dreams of Reality is the debut full length by Eradication and they traffic in slick, thrashy melodic death metal with some metalcore elements stirred in (mainly the vocals) and of course, they co-opt the Gothenburg melo-death metal sound and style for all its worth. We’ve all heard this style done about a gazillion times already by any number of good, bad and really shitty bands. Since these guys, although talented, bring nothing new to the long running Gothenburg party, this isn’t the type review that cries out for extended and thoughtful prose.
Steel Druhm is a famously soft touch for a mean and angry thrash album. Because of this well know thrash predilection, I’ve celebrated the entire catalogue of Dutch death thrashers Legion of the Damned because these guys can really bring the pain. Over four albums, LOTD (formerly known as Occult) have consistently crafted intense, punishing thrash in the vein of old Slayer and Sodom mixed with the more modern death metal approach of bands like The Crown. They certainly aren’t reinventing the thrash metal genre in any way but they always produced quality material. Happily for thrash mavens, after a three year hiatus they manage to keep the spiked ball rolling with Descent Into Chaos and give yet another lesson in violence and aggressive thrashality.
Well, it’s been a very interesting year for me, Steel Druhm since joining Angry Metal Guy Industries in April. Despite the no pay, brutal hours, an Angry Metal Boss based overseas and enough hate mail to choke a Belgian aardvark, it’s been tons of fun and I wouldn’t trade one minute of it for a million Amorphis CDs. This year, like every other year, saw it’s fair share of shining metal moments and plenty of steaming crap as well. All things considered though, it’s a great time to be a fan of metal and there’s so much out there to choose from, it can get overwhelming trying to stay current and hear all the worthwhile releases. As the year winds down and we get set for the start of 2011, I want to wish all our readers a happy holiday season and give a big metal salute to all of you (and an extra big salute to the Angry Metal Guy himself for giving me a forum for my metal rants). I hope we were able to turn folks on to some quality music and generally entertain with our opinionated and self-righteous musings, ramblings, tirades, manifestos and diatribes.
Comebacks. They ain’t so easy to pull off. For every band that produces a glorious reunion album there are four that crash, burn and damage their legacy. Earlier this summer we were blessed by an unexpectedly great reunion album from Accept and now Sweden’s The Crown have pulled off an equally monstrous comeback with Doomsday King. This is their first since 2006’s Possessed 13 and first with new vocalist Jonas Stalhammar (God Macabre) stepping in for Johan Lindstrand. However, make no mistake, this is The Crown of old and they’re storming with menace and out for blood! This is such a furious thrash/death assault that it’s hard to believe these guys were out of action for so long. Whatever they were doing during their down time, it obviously pissed them off and now they need to hurt somebody.
