ITALY CAN DO NO WRONG
I cannot stress this enough and I know I have said this way more
times than I can count, but the combination of Italy and doom is so egregious,
so profoundly beautiful and possesses such an innate sense of class, all the while
being topped with such a sense of dynamism, that one has to believe that if you
like doom in all its down tuned thundering glory and cannot get enough of the
genre along with its vast sub-genres then a better scene than Italy doesn’t
exist. Out of the country that has graced us with the eccentric mad genius of
doom that is Paul Chain, the monolithic dirge draped Abysmal Grief and the
incomprehensible conglomeration of doom and progressive rock in a way never
dreamed of before by Black Hole, the country, overflowing with musicians of
such unfathomable talent and love for doom that happily dives into the
territory of fanaticism, has bestowed upon us a new trio that goes by the name of
‘Kröwnn’.
Kröwnn was formed in the summer of 2012 in Venice and has Michele
el Lello Carnielli handling the duties of both lead singer as well as guitarist
and is backed by two ladies going by the names of Silvia Selvaggia Rossato and Elena
Fiorenzano handling the bass guitar and drums respectively. They released their rather lengthy debut demo
entitled ‘Hyborian Age’ spanning almost 40 minutes spread out almost evenly over
the six tracks. A cursory look at the artwork leaves you enthralled and curious.
A wizard gazes at you standing at an edge of a desert while moons and stars of
different colors dot the sky and a gargantuan beast resembling a woolly
mammoth roams freely as smoke rises. Combine that imagery with the title of
this release and you put together the pieces of the puzzle that give you the
thematic proclivity of the band which is an utter reverence towards the fantasy
worlds created by authors such as Howard, Moorcock, Tolkien and Martin as well
an undying love towards Conan The Barbarian, a topic that fits the genre of
doom metal perfectly with all its masculinity and yet is not discussed enough.
Needless to say, Kröwnn play doom metal that has a predilection
towards the old school and though they gyrate around power riffs the trio often
manoeuvre towards the spectrum of stoner territories and even baste them together
with the utmost of repose. However, don’t expect, expansive soundscapes
depicting meandering into the sun baked desert or the journeys into the
psychedelia induced unknown expanses, but instead take a look at the artwork,
drawn in all it warm soothing colors and experience rather a laid back wall of
fuzzy sound that acts as in impressive weapon to a strong repertoire of the
band. An extremely consistent and fluent release what is truly amazing is their
sound writing and how the band manages to string together pieces and form one
coherent track after another. Right from the epic feel of the ‘For the Throne
of Fire’ which is an instant throwback to ‘Nightfall’ era ‘Candlemass’ or the
groove draped stoner embracing that were atypical of ‘The Ethereal Mirror’ era
of ‘Cathedral’ on ‘The Woodwose’ each track has some new influences to showcase
to listener which instead of sounding derivative and recycled come as a breath
of fresh air on an already original release. As the quick choppy riffs of
Pentagram and Trouble come to mind on some tracks the band also uses the soft
strumming of the bass creating an almost fluid liquid sound as well as swirling
riffs on ‘At the Cromlech’ to remind the
listener of later ‘Electric Wizard’. As the trio also throws in elements of
hard rock to create catchy choruses and infectious riffs, what is to be noticed
is the different moods on each track. If you have ‘Gods of Magnitogorsk’ to sound
as the perfect theme to the fight scene in Conan you also have to deal with the
depths of desolate despair on ‘The Melnibonean’. If you enjoyed the classic all
out rock out parts on ‘At the Cromlech’ you are also subjugated towards going
on a trip with the trio through the desert on the lengthy instrumental ‘Stormborn’.
As the lo-fi demo production and feedback a la ‘Sleep’ grips
your mind with all its swampy filth you have to give a special mention to Michele.
His highly emotive voice thrusts the band all along and has a range that is
reminiscent of Messiah Marcolin on the epic parts, the deep sunken bellowing of Glenn Danzig and is at times even reminiscent of ‘Type Negative O’s great
Peter Steele in all its sepulchral, forlorn driven power when deciding to sing
on a higher register. Throughout the demo
the band permeates an esoteric intelligence by showing it knows what it wants
backed by an unbridled creativity of the instruments through which the bands
can bring forth unto the listener what the band needs. The song writing and
song placing on the album is another brilliant feature innate here and how the
band pendulums between the stoner and doom territories, often holding hands of
both is truly a testament to the band and its ability to stand out in a genre that is over
saturated with bands where the general norm is shelling out recycled Sabbathian
riffs backed by no emotion.
Hopefully, these guys can land a record deal, and if they
do, I hope they get an opportunity to re record this demo since the lo-fi
production takes away a bit of the punch, which if professionally recorded will
be a massive one.Keep this beast of a demo in mind. It is one of the best
stuff I've heard from a new band for a while, and this is a sign of things to
come from ‘Kröwnn’
then brace yourself for a brilliant journey.
SCORE - 78/100
Thanks for the tip - you had me at Paul Chain.
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