Album review: CROWNE – Kings In The North

Frontiers [Release date 18.06.21]

Crowne is (another) gathering of Scandinavian melodic hard rockers from various bands comprising of vocalist Alexander Strandell (Art Nation), guitar, keyboards & producer Jona Tee (H.E.A.T), bassist John Levén (Europe) and drummer Christian Lundqvist (The Poodles), with the album’s guitar solos provided by Love Magnusson (Dynazty). Strandell and Tee are Crowne’s main songwriters too.

Starting off with a nice bit of grandiose melodic hard rock in ‘Kings Of The North’, we then get a floor filler if ever there was on in ‘Perceval’. Shades of the Poodles and H.E.A.T. with a chance for Alexander Strandell to show off his undoubted vocal prowess.

The album does dip a little midway through as ‘Unbreakable’ is a tad melodic hard rock by numbers and ‘Make A Stand’ is one to skip. However, ‘Set Me Free’ is superb from its pop synth intro through to the instant chorus and keyboard solo, one of the album’s highpoints. ‘Sum Of All Fears’ is another one with a strong pop these running through it, especially in the chorus.

There is the obligatory ballad and ‘Save Me From Myself’ is suitably passionate in its delivery.

Do give this album time as it gets better on each subsequent play, although ‘Perceval’ and ‘Set Me Free’ are instant treats on the ears. I am pretty sure we will hear more from Crowne as Strandell and Tee make a good partnership and they know how to create classy melodic hard rock. ***1/2

Review by Jason Ritchie

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)