Artist: Crown Of The Usurper
Country: Italy
Label: Profaner Records
Formats: Cassette EP
Year: 2025
Profaner Records isn’t exactly known for its refined taste in art. In fact, when their releases my digital desk I am in for a treat of some of the most unrefined sort of music, dug up from the deepest gutters of the world’s Extreme Metal underground. This time the Spanish label is offering the debut EP by Italy’s Crown Of The Usurper. At the moment of writing not too much is known about this new collective, except that at least one of the guys in the band is also in Orgiastic Pleasures. You don’t exactly need to be a mathematician to know where this is going musically…
Crown Of The Usurper is indeed another excursion into the realm of savage and unpolished Blackened Death Metal, or Deathly Black Metal if you prefer. Regardless of your musical perception, this is some unadulterated Blasphemy worshipping material. Maybe slightly sharper in sound, consequently having a bit of that Black Witchery/Conqueror vibe to it, but Bestial Black/Death Metal it is. Nothing in this 17-minute EP is trying to be new, refreshing, diverse or otherwise musically exquisite. The propulsive force, the thunderous drums and wild and vitriolic barking vocals are all engaged in a devastating battle for dominance, but as a result find themselves entangled in a whirling cesspool of controlled chaos. The sporadic moments the music slows down a little the band makes some frantic attempts to come across as more diverse and thoughtful and even bring some musicality to the light. Most of these attempts, however, are fruitless or at least brief in nature. The true nature of the beast soon resurfaces and these Italians again give their full steam and rampage on like a savage.
With a playing time of less than 20 minutes this is a solid and (dis)tasteful little fucker that will appeal to those who couldn’t care less about originality or musical sophistication. It also proves once again why the format of the EP is best for this sort of music, stretching this much longer would greatly compromise the power and lethality of the music. Short and snappy, painful and merciless, that’s how it’s done.
