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Frontiers [elease date: 27.01.23]
Second album from Crowne, a high end assembly made up of members of H.E.A.T., Art Nation, Europe, The Poodles and Dynazty. Respectively, Jona Tee, Alexander Strandell, John Leven, Christial Lundqvist and Love Magnusson.
The debut didn’t quite live up to its billing, but this one does.
This is grab you by the lapels, get right in your face melodic rock. Macho, slick, streamlined, not much room for nuance, although there is a stab at sophistication here and there. Almost always involving Magnusson’s spectacular axework.
His tightly woven fretwork combines satisfyingly with Strandell’s emphatic, mannered vocals on the title track and especially on ‘Northern Lights’, giving both tracks the immediacy and impact we expect from today’s Melodic Rock.
It’s unclear just what the lyrical aim is of ‘In The Name Of The Fallen’, and you worry that the most unpolitical of genres is getting politicised. But it’s clear that the fist in the air triumphalism of ‘Champions’ could not be mistaken for anything other than stadium rock at its most vital.
Tee’s sturdy keyboard provides the melodic spine on several songs on the album, most notably on the pacy ‘Ready To Run’ and ‘Juliette’, adding a symphonic element to already weighty, bombastic arrangements.
All that said though, it doesn’t get any more powerful than the ‘The Last Of Us’. Magnusson and Leven share the heavy lifting, locking guitar and bass together in the creation of a huge piece of intensely delivered music. It’s a suitably apposite track to finish on, one that best represents a rapidly evolving rock band, only two albums in. ****
Review by Brian McGowan
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