When it comes to death metal, few outside of Florida will argue that its true home is Sweden. The country has given the world so many legendary names over the years, as well as some cult favourites who can always be relied on. In that latter category would be The Crown, from the southern city of Trollhättan. After forming in 1990 under the name Crown Of Thorns, they released their debut album "The Burning" in 1995, followed by "Eternal Death" two years later, before changing their name to the current moniker. They've been a little more prolific in recent years, releasing "Cobra Speed Venom" in 2018, with "Royal Destroyer" coming three years after, and now, another three years on, The Crown are unleashing their latest effort, with its title fully representative of their roots.

Straight away, the album hits the listener like a freight train with the rampaging ferocity of "I Hunt With The Devil." There's a lot going on in this song and it's all heavy, including the grindcore-flavoured intro, coupled with some Slayer-esque divebombs and some interesting melodic placements, which are most prominent during the third verse, during which the vocals continue to spit nothing but venom. This is an excellent opener and the sonic onslaught can also be heard on tracks like "Howling At The Warfield" and "God-King," the latter of which contains some imaginative lyrics that conjure up images of such characters as Sauron.

There's a lot more than brutality and mayhem on offer on "Crown Of Thorns," such as the tribal tinge on "The Night Is Now," which invokes memories of Sepultura's "Chaos A.D." without ripping it off and creates an incredible atmosphere. Elsewhere, "Gone To Hell" stands out for being clearly influenced by traditional heavy metal, while still retaining death growls and is reminiscent of post "Endorama" Kreator in terms of the mid-tempo pace and snarling approach. Meanwhile, "Where Nightmares Belong" is another interesting song where the chorus almost sways and contains some beautiful singing to lead the listener out, though it's still just as mean as the other tracks.

"Crown Of Thorns" is a really enjoyable album from start to finish, excellent even, though there are one or two moments that prevent it from being a classic. "The Agitator," for example, features a guitar sound that sounds like a fly buzzing in your ear, which is kind of cool initially but it gets annoying pretty quickly, as the vocals are delivered at a spoken word pace. There are a lot of different things to sample on the record, and one might have hoped for a little more melody in places, but really that's a nitpick, and a stretch of one at that.

Fifteen years on from their reformation, The Crown are as good as ever, maybe even better after bringing in some new blood in the form of bassist Mattias Rasmussen and drummer Mikael Norén. "Crown Of Thorns" will delight longtime fans, impress newcomers, and win over any doubters with its take-no-prisoners, full-on sonic assault which adds a lot more to the usual death metal fare. It's an album that death metal fans will want to check out and almost certainly add to their collections with varied influences and sounds that help to make it one of the most exciting death metal albums of the year.