Hell Is Here

The band changed its name from Crown of Thorns to The Crown in July 1997, and the first song it put out under the new name was "The Poison", on the Wicked World Records compilation Statements of Intent; the version that opens this album is a different one. The band also covered Sepultura's "Arise" for a tribute album. In January and February 1998 it toured Europe with Sacrilege, whose ranks included Tomas Lindberg, formerly of At the Gates. A member of Metal Blade's staff saw one of those shows and was impressed, that led to a deal, and the band signed with the label that summer. Through the summer The Crown played the Parkrock festival in Sweden and With a Dragon's Blaze in Belgium while rehearsing hard and writing new songs. Then the five went back to Berno Studio in Malmö and stayed four weeks to record the album, in July and August 1998. Berno Paulsson and the band are credited as producers, with Henrik Larson as co-producer; Staffan Olofsson mastered it, Dan Wallin provided the cover artwork and the live photographs, and Thomas Ewerhard did the design. The line-up was unchanged: Johan Lindstrand on vocals, Marko Tervonen and Marcus Sunesson on guitars, Magnus Olsfelt on bass and Janne Saarenpää on drums. Olsfelt had a hand in the lyrics of nine of the eleven songs. Tervonen has said the band played its first four albums in standard E tuning. Metal Blade Records released the album on CD in Europe in November 1998, catalogue number 3984-14193-2, and in North America in March 1999. It was the band's first album as The Crown and its first for the label. In April 1999 The Crown toured Europe on the No Mercy Tour part III with Morbid Angel, Emperor, Impaled Nazarene, Limbonic Art and Peccatum, and in August it played Wacken Open Air in Germany, to the biggest audience it had yet faced. Metal Blade reissued the album on vinyl in 2017.