The crown
Wywiad przeprowadził Andrzej Papież
Finally! I've tried to do this interview since the beginnig of last spring... Since then we lost questions, missunderstood eachother with The crown members, many things happened. But finally when I recieved Marko answers all sorrow and shit like like that fade away! The crow have new vocalist, news songs and they're ready to hit our minds once again. Prepare yourself because they stronger then ever now! Answers were made by The crown guitarist Marko Tervonen.
Hellish greetings Marko ! Any virgins raped today ? "Only a few animals..."
You bloody monster ! Few months ago your former vocalist Johan left the band. What made him to do it ? Was he bored of death metal ?"He never got bored of the music or us, but he just changed his priorities in life. He´s more into "work at a factory, earn money, have a family" than our way of life...it´s his choice."
As I know your new screamer is Tomas Lindberg coming from At the gates.How did he become The crown member ? Was there any quest or something ? "We felt that we REALLY needed Tomas. He was actually the only option we could imagine. We had known the man for a long time and he has been into The Crown since 1997 or something like that... There were some people who was interested in the job, but never went as far as auditioning people, since we felt that we HAVE to have Tomas."
Did you play any shows or rehersals with him ? Is he still the same live-beast as he was in At the gates ? "We have rehearsed with Tomas since february (I think). We actually played live a few weeks ago here in Sweden. It felt great as hell!!! He´s still an animal..."
"Deathrace king's" cover was made by Alf Svensson, musician from At the gates. Is there any special line between The crown and At the gates ? You know... cover made by one of them, now their vocalist is The crown vocalist ? By the way, do you know why At the gates split up?"Haha...the connection to the mighty Grotesque is a bit stronger...since we have used all the Grotesque members in some way. Necrolord is responsible for our logo + the artwork on the first 2 albums. Alf is responoble for the DRK cover, and Tomas....well ya know... ATG split up was due to "musical diffrences" as far as I know..."
Last year you toured in America. How it was ? How The crown was welcomed in States ? How could you compare American maniacs to European ones ? "We loved to tour the US. It was a killer tour with Krisiun, Nile and Cannibal Corpse. The metalheads in the states are not that much different. One thing you see at once is that the fans have short hair and musicians long hair..hehe.. And maybe the US crowds are a bit more into the mosh pit activities. We got a killer reception almost every night and we loved every minute of the US. WE WILL RETURN!"
You also played on X-mas festival with Morbid angel, Behemoth, Enlsaved and Hypnos. How many bottles of vodka did you drink during that hellish tour, he, he ? "Jägermeister overdose!!!!!!! A fun tour I must say. We did some of the best shows on this tour. I fucking love playing in Essen!!! Crazy people!!! I remember that I was doing one of my best performances during that gig and suddenly a guy pulled of his shirt and he had a Crown Of Thorns tattoo on his stumach. And the adrenaline level wen´t beyond the scale..."
You celebrated The crown's 10th anniversary last autumn. Did you do any special show or party that day ? Maybe you'll release some special anniversary album ? "The only thing we did a bit special was that the first 1000 copies of the DRK were released as a black box set with silver painted cover. And we did a special tour shirt..that was it..."
And what about your killer demo "Forget the lights". When I listened this stuff for the first time I was young pimpled sucker and that four piece masterpiece blown me away !!! Will it ever be re-released?!?!?
"Maybe....I have some plans of putting together a very special CD with 15-16 rare Crown songs, including some covers and live versions... Do you think it sounds a s a good idea??? (Yeeeaaaahhhh!!!!!- ap)I hope that it will happen soon... It´s actually just up to get the money to print the damn thing..."
How do you remember your cooperation with swedish Black sun records? It was the first record label which sent me promo CD's ... And it was Crown of thorns "Eternal death" promo... "I liked/like Black Sun. They were a very good label for us. We just felt that we wanted to move on to a bigger label. We wanted to tour and to have a world-wide distribution, and we got it with Metal Blade."
On "Eternal death" there was one track dedicated to Euronymous. Did you know him ? It's a kind weird, because he was mainly in black metal, and as I know he disliked death metal... "He did not dislike Death Metal, he disliked the wimpy Death Metal bands he called Life Metal. Magnus is 100% responsible of that song and he just wanted to make a tribute to one of those special people on this planet..."
It could sound strange but I was real maniac of Crown of thorns. There was something magic and powerful in this name... And now when you're The crown "only" all this aura has gone... (for me...) Don't get me wrong, I know it wasn't your fault, but... you know...he,he..."What can I say....but life goes on."
Isn't the title of one Entombed demos, he, he... Anyway question number 13... Are you superstitious ? Emagine, sometime in the future The crown will release thirteen album and it will be ... Yeah, what it will be like ?!?! "We have plans to release 666 albums, so we´ll be around to bother you for a while..."
There's one band in Sweden which sounds similar to The crown. It's Defleashed. They perform similar kind of death'n'roll which you do too. What do you think about them ? "I really liked their "Under The Blade" album. But then it started to sound pretty much similair. I think that we have much more variation than Defleshed..."
What can you tell me about follower of "Deathrace king". What it will be like ? When it will be released ? What can we expect.. . tell me...you know... all that shit concerning new stuff..."We have now rehearsed 10 new songs and it sounds fucking awesome. We have some really good songs and it´s actualy a bit more brutal than DRK. Tomas and Magnus are in charge of the lyrics this time. Some titles: "Crowned In Terror", "(I Am) Hell", "Drugged Unholy" to name a few....
When I think about it, it feels like a perfect continuation to the DRK album. A very brutal one, but there are also some heavy fuckers that will definitely cause you a whiplash. We´ll start the recordings most likely in October. We´ll polish these 10 songs ´til we hit the studio, so prepare your selves for a monster!!!"
The crown exists over 10 years... so it's highest time to release live album, don't you think ?"I´ve heard this question more and more the recent months....hmm....maybe if we´ll play in a "special" place on the following tours we should record something..."
And I think that's all for now. Tell polish maniacs that you love them, he, he... and precise time when you'll visit my country! Keep the death'racing!! "The race is on!!! Thanx for the int Andy. After some intensive e-mailing I finally answered this one.
Take care and be sure to check out www.thecrownonline.com or come.to/thecrown to read about the latest shit about the new album and about that "special" CD we talked about. That albums will ONLY be available through our website, if it´ll be out at all... Take care!"
