– Hello and first of all, thanks for taking the time. How is everything going right now with THE CROWN? What are you currently up to?

Hello and thank you for taking time to interview us. Everything is good with The Crown, right now we have had the release of the new album so we are doing interviews and also reading reviews which is a joy mostly because most people seem to really dig it. Harvesting the fruits of our labour! We are also preparing for upcoming shows.

– You have just released your new album, entitled «Death is not Dead», which is the first one in 4 years. How are you feeling about it? What are your expectations on this record?

I feel truly good about it, and I am usually very self-critical so that must mean something. It took a lot of time to get it together but it was worth it! The songs are guaranteed to stand the test of time as we have had them around for years now, and still not hating them! I don’t really know what to expect of album sales these days but my hopes are that people who dig this kind of music will hear it and get a kick out of it. And also it would be great if younger people who haven’t heard us before get into it as well. We are anyway very satisfied with the album. I think it is one of our strongest albums seen as a whole.

 

– This album sees the return of vocalist Johan Lindstrand after a brief period with Jonas Stålhammar. In fact you have had three different vocalists in the band, why precisely in this position? Are you cursed with singers?

Well it is a very hard position to be the voice of The Crown and we have had three of the best singers out there. Johan is the original and has done 6  (or 7 counting Crowned Unholy) out of 8 albums so its not that bad. But of course it is almost impossible to replace the original voice of a band, however good you are.

 

– And how did the comeback of Johan arise? Is he the perfect singer for THE CROWN?

We wanted him when we restarted this whole thing back in -09, but then he was busy with his own band. Later he came to change his mind which we are very pleased with of course as he is the original and in a way the perfect voice of The Crown. But I guess everyone has their favourite.

 

– Your earlier albums were superb and had a gret impact into the scene I would dare say, could you say apart from being something positive also can put some more pressure on you?

Thank you! It is a good challenge to live up to and to create from the same source but still evolve and mature. We are proud of our legacy but we won’t be restricted and still want to do new stuff that represent us here and now. If we always do honest music then we in a way make music from the same source in different times and conditions.

 

– In fact during the early days you had a lot of studio activity, but during the last decade you have just released 3 albums. Why did your activity slow down?

Well we split up for a couple of years and made around 10 albums in different projects and got married, children, education and jobs, so we have been keeping up doing other stuff in life.

 

– This new album avoids any kind of monotony and boredom building really singular tracks, such as «Meduseld» or the instrumental song «Reign». Is THE CROWN through an obvious musical evolution right now?

Thank you, I agree we try avoid dead spots and boredom. Or to repeat the same stuff over and over again. I think that Meduseld is a real highlight of the album and it is the first real instrumental track we have done that isn’t a intro/outro/interlude. Kind of like the classic Metallica track Orion with a scandinavian touch.

 

– On this «Death is not Dead» we can find several cover songs, by SODOM or PARADISE LOST among others. Would you mind to tell us which are they and how did the idea arise?

They bands that we used to cover way back before we made albums, so we thought we should honour them by recording them now.

 

– And if you could choose three more tunes to cover, which ones would you pick and why?

Sleep – Jerusalem, one hour track! Because it is the heaviest track ever. But it would take some years learning and it would be hard to stay awake playing it… Other than that we have some ideas, but let’s see what happens.

 

– All this about «Death is not Dead» being said; how could you describe it in just 3 words?

Pretty solid album!

 

– THE CROWN has now been around for 25 years now so, what have been both the best and worst moments for the band thus far?

The best moments are still coming now and then, we still are getting our kicks doing this stuff. The worst moments must have been splitting up, even though it turned out good in the end.

 

– And finally, what are your near-future plans?

We will play some shows, The Close up boat, Japan, Hellfest etc. Supporting the new album.

 

– That’s all, thank you once more for answering our questions. If you want to add some final words; feel free to do it.

Thanks for the interview. We always want to say that this album should be experienced in it entirety, from beginning to end, in the right track order to fully get the whole experience of Death is not Dead ride! If that way of listening is still not forgotten. Also it should be played real fucken LOUD!!!

Keep it up!

 

Sergio Fernández

sergio@queensofsteel.com

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