VELVET THUNDER

The latest group of musicians to sail under the ‘Supergroup’ banner is Crowne, a most superior melodic/hard rock band out of Sweden and they have rapidly followed up 2021’s debut release Kings In The North with another quality slab of hard rock gold!

The group is made up by an amazing team of musicians in Alexander Strandell (Art Nation) on lead vocals with Jona Tee (H.E.A.T./New Horizon) on rhythm guitar and keyboards, John Levén (Europe) on bass, Christian Lundqvist (The Poodles) on drums and the mercurial Love Magnusson (Dynazty) has been promoted from guest musician on the debut release to full time member and his guitar work most certainly catches the eye (and ear) throughout. These guys have real pedigree and have most definitely cemented a place in the rock firmament with their individual bands and are now in the process of making brand new entries in the hall of fame with their awesome new band Crowne. Swedish bands seem to have a talent and flair for creating melodic and instantly hitting rock music with Crowne building on just about every Scandinavian band you can think of with the music here being very much in the style of Europe, TNT, Work Of Art, Eclipse and Palace. The music is heavy but very melodic with all the expected vocal harmonies, catchy hooks and stunning instrumental interplay with the songs all being huge and epic.

The guitar work of Magnusson is immense and Jona Tee is a pretty mean guitarist too but he concentrates on rhythm guitar here which then allows him to lay down swathes of luscious keyboards and some great solos of the type that Tony Carey delivered up perfectly. Then there is the force of nature that is Alexander Strandell and his delivery is, quite simply, devastatingly powerful and takes the band to a new level entirely and you simply must applaud his immense talent. Again, the production by Jona Tee is first class and perfectly balanced allowing the music to storm out of the speakers to create a simply perfect sound that is crystal clear and as sharp as ice.

In truth, hard melodic rock simply does not get better than this and I would doubt that there is a not a rock fan on the planet who would not be enthralled by this latest work of immense proportions from a band who have everything required to rule the world.