Crowne – Operation Phoenix

6/10

Crowne is nothing other than swedish melodic rock united: Jona Tee from H.e.a.t, John Levén from Europe, Kicken from The Poodles, Alexander Strandell from Art Nation and Love Magnusson from Dynazty. When you’ve got a supergroup like that, it should not be too hard to figure out what the band Crowne sounds like. And of course, this is H.e.a.t-like AOR tailored for the hit radio that doesn’t play this kind of music anymore, with a hint of power metal, which gives it all a slighty rougher touch.

The problem with many of these kinds of supergroups is that they often feel predictable and quite uninspired. Like it’s all just a side project that these guys put together when they have time off, mailing sound files back and forth while some Frontiers producer is putting it all together into an album. But Crowne is a product of talented people, so it also works out quite nice in the end. The songs are not mindblowing but solid, and the power metal touch gives it all a little more character than most AOR projects out there. The bands weakest point is when it gets to poppy. A song like the Eurovision-like Super Trooper just feels silly, but when it rocks hard, like in the heavy The Last of Us, it works a lot better.

Even though this feels like sort of a run of the mill album for most people involved, it’s still a piece of enjoyable melodic hard rock. If that’s what you’re looking for, Operation Phoenix is not the album that will blow you away, but it’s just the album you’d expect. And that’s plenty enough for me.