Review by Tobias on November 17, 2004.

Perhaps one of the coolest things in the history of ever has just happened: a few years ago, The Crown unleashed one of the greatest metal albums ever, Crowned in Terror, now, one release and a couple years later the band posthumously releases Crowned in Terror again with the band’s original vocalist, a few revamped pieces and a much better sound engineering. Crowned Unholy is that equally stunning work.

You read correctly, the word is posthumously. Of course I mean the ties that bind, not the band members themselves, are dead. For me, the fact that The Crown decided to split was perhaps one of the most depressing pieces of metal news to hit the scene in the past year or so. And you should be crying too if you missed out on this underground legend. Stunning guitar work, the songwriting sensibility of a rock ‘n roll god gone mad and vicious vocals that could trounce the best of them are foundations of The Crown. For you newbs, think melodic-death like The Haunted, but even better.

When Crowned in Terror came out initially I pretty much crapped my pants. The Crown had picked up legendary metal vocalist Tomas Lindberg (At the Gates, The Great Deceiver) and simply destroyed. After a tour in the US and some unfriendly drunken incidents, Lindberg was replaced with original vocalist Johan Lindstrand. The band recorded Possessed 13 and decided to call it a day. But it wasn’t quite the end, because The Crown opted to go back and re-record (note: not re-master) Crowned in Terror with Lindstrand.

Really the result is something like the re-releases of the original Star Wars movies. Crowned Unholy is newer, it’s smoother, it’s got cooler tricks, but it’s missing a little of what the rawness of Crowned in Terror provided. Some people can easily name one album over the other in preference, but I can’t. I love ‘em both. Take the new version of “Speed of Darkness”: I like it better than the original. On the other hand, I like the original version of “Satanist” a little better than the Lindstrand version. And this, folks, is precisely why this is one of the coolest things to happen in the history of ever. A superlative of an album was released twice, and twice it destroys all. Long live The Crown.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 10
Atmosphere: 10
Production: 10
Originality: 8
Overall: 10

Rating: 9.6 of 10

Review by Fran on January 11, 2022.

1995 was a hell of a year for Argentina. Carlos Menem -a right-wing idol, traitor and thief- was reelected as president, consolidating the longest continuous leadership of the State… and his neoliberal regime of corruption. Crematorio’s first album The Face Of Oppression, released that year, mostly deals with social denounce topics and it's not for the less; considering inflation, unemployment and external debt rates that year. They play mid-paced groovy death/grind, strongly influenced by mid-90’s Napalm Death indeed. The drum kit sounds more punk than metal at times but the inclusion of solid blast beats and fast sections in general do the trick perfectly.

Drumming is tight and precise, showing some reminiscences of "World Downfall". I’d say there’s more of that on some d-beat riffs too, that sound a little bit more like Terrorizer than ND. The first track begins even slower, like "Multinational Corporations", "Evolved As One" or even Godflesh stuff, that kind of feel; they certainly did their theoretic homework while writing this material. The bass guitar is heavily distorted and doesn’t really go beyond the guitar lines but functions adequately as an anchor between the rhythmic and the melodic layers of music.

The guitar tone is raw amp distortion as you can imagine. The production of the album overall is very crude but lets you hear the band’s performance and clean execution. You could say the vocals are the most awkward element of the album, especially the high-pitched screams that sound out of place but the verses sung in classical growls are completely fine. The album was recorded in 1994 but it was re-released by Careless Records in 2019, the hard work behind this label and their efforts to bring back to life lost gems like this is notable. Cheers!

Rating: 9 out of 10