Who or what is THE CROWN speaking in musical way?

Janne Saarenpää: THE CROWN stands for an intense form of brutal death metal, the joy of playing the shit out of our instruments and the total blast of playing in front of an audience!
Magnus Olsfelt: THE CROWN is death metal for the year 2000.

You combined a lot of different influences to create a unique Crown style. Who are the people you specially respect? Did they have any direct influence on you?

Janne: We all have influences from all kinds of perverted music styles / persons, so it´s kinda hard to explain it without making this interview boooring… I myself (Janne) am a HUGE fan of drummers like Ian Paice of DEEP PURPLE, Pete Sandoval of MORBID ANGEL, Charlie Benante of ANTHRAX / S.O.D. and Gene Hoglan of S.Y.L amongst other great drummers. Fortunately we all have some key persons / bands in common, and that keep us on track while making music. If we only had had completely different influences we would have quit a long time ago. Some of the bands worth to mention are (in no particular order): METALLICA, MOTORHEAD, MORBID ANGEL, DEICIDE, KREATOR, DEATH, PARADISE LOST, AT THE GATES (RIP) etc.
Magnus: It´s hard to say, but people like; Lemmy, Cliff Burton, Sid Vicious, Tom Araya and David Vincent are great bass players. I also dig Grave Violator but he plays guitar.

You changed the name in 1997. How do you feel about it?

Janne: We changed the name at the same time as we switched record label so we couldn´t have picked a better time. It´s much easier to pronounce the name so don´t get a confused ”Cro…whaaat???” from people anymore… haha!!! It wasn´t the funniest thing to change the name but it saved us from some legal proceedings that could have given us some fatal injuries economically, and as we are the poorest band on earth, we´re very satisfied with the situation today. As far as I´m concerned, the U.S. aor CROWN OF THORNS can shove the name up their christian asses…
Magnus: I don´t think about it much, we used to cut it short ourselves to THE CROWN long before we were forced to change it. Also the old albums have been released under the new name as well.

"Deathrace King" is your 4th, brand-new album. Tell me more details. Where did you record it, who was the producer? What the listeners can expected from "Deathrace King"?

Janne: “Deathrace King” was recorded in Studio Fredman, with Fredrik Nordström engineering and co-producing, and it really sounds awesome! THIS is the drum sound I was looking for! Everything sounds better than before, and Johan´s vocal performances really remind us of the nickname he got from somebody… Lava for Lunch Lindstrand… AAARGH!!! And I can tell that all the ”Gothenburg sound”-hunters shouldn´t bother to check this album out, because the lame melodies aren´t fucking there! Just pure Crown-assblasting with the obligatory, amazing Mr Nordström-touch on top of it!
Magnus:It was recorded in Studio Fredman by Fredrik Nordström and ourselves in Nov./Dec. -99. You can expect the best! No mercy!A reckless ride straight to Hell!

Somebody said you are the perfect mix of Scandinavian and American sound. What do you think about those two scenes today?

Janne: Now THAT is a compliment! My impression of the American scene is that most of the people are very talented, they never quit impressing us Europeans with their skills. And here in Europe, especially up North, the Metal music is the absolutely best in the world, so such compliments really make our cold, Black Hearts warmer… The thing I love most about the scenes today is that people no longer seem to care about putting a specific label to their music. It´s no longer about building barriers with Speed, Death-, Black Metal-labels or whatever, it´s just Metal and nothing else! But I really would enjoy the Metal climate more if we got rid of those embarrassing power metal HELLOWEEN -clones…
Magnus: Well, they both have good and bad bands, I prefer the early  stuff. Such as SLAYER, BATHORY, MORBID ANGEL, AT THE GATES, TERRORIZER, DISSECTION, DEICIDE, GROTESQUE, MAYHEM etc.

You played on No Mercy Tour part III with such masters as MORBID ANGEL, EMPEROR, IMPALED NAZARENE, LIMBONIC ART and PECCATUM. Thousands of people see you on stage. Tell for our readers a little more about that tour.

Janne: I still have wet dreams about that tour! Haha!!! That tour was really a dream coming true! Opening for Morbid Angel was something I never dared to even to dream of, and there we were! And as I am a HUGE fan of IMPALED NAZERENE I totally freaked out when I heard that they would be on that tour! All the bands got along really well, and the audience was incredible, we wouldn´t hesitate to do the exactly same tour again! We travelled with IMPALED NAZARENE in the same bus, and with me and Marko Tervonen having parents from the same parts of Finland as the Impaled dudes were from, we got along almost too well! Luttinen fell in love with Magnus, our bassplayer instantly… haha!!! This friendship has resulted in some guest vocal performances on “Deathrace King”, Mika Luttinen screams his guts out in the track called “Total Satan”! So, the No Mercy III was a total success!!!
Magnus: Well we played in France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. And of course it was great for us to be on such a professional tour with such big bands. We kicked ass and enjoyed ourselves!

Plans for the future? What about promo tour activities, Open Air festivals and maybe some other great tours with your colleagues?

Janne: We´ll do as many tours as we can, and Metal Blade is going to bring Marko to Germany to do some interviews for 4 days. Lots of e-mail interviews and a bunch of telephone interviews to the U.S. are also planned. We will also feature a compilation album called "Power From The North - Sweden Rocks The World". It´s a compilation featuring Swedish bands (ENTOMBED, HAMMERFALL, THE HAUNTED, IN FLAMES, MESHUGGAH, TRANSPORT LEAGUE, Yngwie Malmsteen etc.) covering significant early Swedish hard rock / Metal bands, we are playing the shit out of "Burnin´leather" by BATHORY! The touring thing is the most important and efficient way to promote us, so we will put the weight on that. We just want to tour as much as possible, the more we tour, the less we have to suffer from the boring everyday life up here in Sweden. We´re hoping for a European tour as well as a U.S. tour for this year. We´re already booked for a Scandinavian tour with CANNIBAL CORPSE, VOMITORY and DERANGED! Between 10-14:th of April there will be some serious action on the Scandinavian stages!
Magnus: Marko will do a promo-trip to Germany at the end of February. We will have a release party in Gothenburg in March. And a Scandinavian tour with CANNIBAL CORPSE in April.

Who are the bands you can recommended to fans?

Janne: I would recommend the new IMPALED NAZARENE album called ”Nihil”! They have added a guitarplayer to their already insane line-up: Alexi Laiho from CHILDREN OF BODOM! And everybody should be familiar with the STRAPPING YOUNG LAD album called ”City”!!! People should also keep on buying the SACRILEGE (RIP) album called ”The Fifth Season”, an awesome album from 1997, still available on www.dolores.se/blacksun.
Magnus: NIFELHEIM and SWORDMASTER are some bands that kill today!