When I first heard about this project I was very excited to hear what would be
created. Does it live up to its expectations? Well no, not really, this is a
real shame. Let me first explain about "The Crowning" the main two people behind
"Crash The System" are former Finnish 400 meter hurdle Champion and song-writer
Sören Kronqvist on keyboards, rhythm guitars, and bass. And Daniel Flores
(Mind's Eye) on drums, guitars, bass, keyboards, strings, and backing vocals.
Daniel's musical background & good reputation in the music business has brought
the best vocalist Sweden has to offer in the metal world onto "The Crowning".
None other then Göran Edman (Ex-Yngwie Malmsteen, Brazen Abbot), Mats Levén (Ex-Yngwie
Malmsteen), Thomas Vikström (Covered Call, Ex-Talk Of The Town, Candlemass) and
Björn Jansson (Ex-Ride The Sky, Tears Of Anger) unfortunately that's where the
surprises stop.
Musically "The Crowning" is an 80's west coast AOR wet dream with loads of keys
and guitars. Think Foreigner, Survivor or even a little Def Leppard. But the
annoying thing is there are too many keyboards and a lot of the time they are
over powering the album and drown out the rest of the music. This is not
surprising seeing that most of the songs are written by Sören Kronqvist. I would
have liked to have heard the guitars a bit more forward in the mix as well. To
me the only thing that saves "The Crowning" are the flawless vocals by the guys
I mentioned above. This is truly the highlight of "The Crowning" if you are a
fan of any of the singers I have mentioned then please pick "The Crowning" up
because they all sound outstanding. My favourite tracks are "Fight Fire with
Fire" "All Because of You" & "Without Chances", which sounds a hell like Jorn
Lande.
Bottom Line:
West coast AOR with loads of keyboards and outstanding vocals.
Now, I must rant a bit here. FRONTIERS RECORDS!!!!!!!!!!! Come on, can you at
least give the people that are reviewing your product good quality
mp3 files please. Seeing you have stopped sending out actual CD's and has gone
down the downloading path. Please give us something we can actually listen to.
The qualities of these files for ”Crash The System” are terrible and washed out
with a lot of top end cymbal noise which is very irritating. This is only
affecting YOUR artists that don't get a fair review because of low
quality mp3's.
