Doomsday King

The Crown split up in March 2004. Four former members later formed a band called Dobermann, which in 2009 parted with its singer, Andreas Bergh of Deathstars, known as Whiplasher Bernadotte, and was said to be recording pure death/thrash metal. Guitarist Marko Tervonen said they had asked Johan Lindstrand to join, but he was too busy with his own band, One Man Army and the Undead Quartet, and it was Lindstrand who asked why they did not use the name The Crown. The singer they found instead was Jonas Stålhammar of God Macabre. As the album took shape, Tervonen said, everything sounded so much like The Crown that, after weighing other names, they settled on the original. Dobermann announced the change on 1 December 2009 and put two new songs online. On 30 June 2010 the band announced a worldwide deal with Century Media Records. Tervonen recorded and mixed the album with the band at Studio-MT across 2009 and 2010, and it was mastered at Bohus Sound Recording by Dragan Tanaskovic and Tervonen. The cover illustration is by Gustavo Sazes. The line-up was Stålhammar on vocals, Tervonen on rhythm guitar, Marcus Sunesson on lead guitar, Magnus Olsfelt on bass and Janne Saarenpää on drums: the band of 2004 with only the singer changed. Doomsday King was released on 24 September 2010. Alongside the standard CD came a limited LP and a limited two-disc digipak whose bonus CD holds four songs: "Die Before Dying", "In Bitterness and Sorrow", "Kill 2010" and "Falling 'Neath the Heaven's Sea". In Sweden the album entered Sverigetopplistan's weekly hard rock album chart at number seven in the 40th week of 2010. The Japanese edition followed on 20 October on Marquee's Avalon label, with the four bonus songs added. It stayed the only album Stålhammar sang on: when Lindstrand returned in September 2011, Stålhammar stepped down, saying he was making way for the true voice of The Crown.