Crowne - 'Kings in the North'

Featuring members of H.E.A.T, Europe, Art Nation and The Poodles, they can’t quite get an anagram out of the name so they have proclaimed themselves as Crowne. Certainly, their majestic debut album will do nicely as a coronation and it’s got plenty pomp and pageantry to herald it.

The title track and “Perceval” are strong statements of intent. These are powerful epics with a massive sound courtesy of Jona Tee’s production. He’s building up a solid CV as a producer and his keys and guitars blend well over the top of a monstrously muscular drum sound pounded out by Christian Lundqvist (The Poodles) and backed up by bass legend, John Leven (Europe).

The overall sound is assertive and bombastic melodic hard rock – more at the H.E.A.T. end of the scale rather than pure AOR. Art Nation is an under-rated band and their singer, Alexander Strandell enjoys his turn in the spotlight with a strong vocal performance, particularly on tracks like the standout “Mad World”. Bringing in Love Magnusson of Dynazty as guest guitar soloist was a smart move too. His fret work adds a great flourish throughout and certainly embellishes tunes like “Sum of All Our Fears” and “Cross to Bear”.

There are certain rules you must observe with a Scandi-melodic rock album. For example, there has to be a girl’s name song. In this case, all the best ‘real’ names must have been taken because they appear to have invented one – unless anyone knows a lady called “Sharoline”? I reckon it’s made up, or named after a Brangelina-style lesbian power-couple called Sharon and Caroline? Good song though.

Obviously, there must also be at least one power ballad. In this case, “Save Me from Myself” is tucked in as the last track as if it was almost a contractual obligation, but it’s too good for that.

Overall, this is a very strong effort from a highly skilled bunch. It is not clear if this is a one-off project or a ‘real’ spin-off band. Maybe it will depend on sales, but if they can achieve the never-easy task of coordinating their various main band’s schedules then they would be a very fine act to see live.