Review by Fran on June 15, 2021.

This is the first Cannibal Corpse album featuring Eric Rutan on guitars after 15 years or so of working with him as a producer in the studio. The behaviour displayed by Pat O’Brien when he was fired completely justifies the decision of the band, in my opinion. My hypothesis is that they told him he was out when they came back home from the gigs with Napalm Death and then Slayer’s final tour; probably the relationship was already strained due to his eccentric personality and radical political views, but the music they did together somehow still functioned - Torture for example, is in my top 3 of CC’s albums- but Red Before Black was kind of a lackluster. I had the opportunity to watch them live a couple of months before Pat’s outburst and I could tell he was still ripping; playing solos exactly as they are on the records and such, but composition-wise the band needed a breath of fresh air. Don't get me wrong, Red Before Black is still a solid CC album but you get the feeling they can do better, as they did here on Violence Unimagined.

Eric Rutan’s contributions on songwriting -tracks 4, 6 and 10- begin with 'Condemnation Contagion'. It’s funny how it sounds like Jack Owen’s songs or even Rob Barrett’s stuff, old-school and totally Cannibal Corpse' It’s like he worked with the band all his life. I have played in death metal bands too and CC’s influence is so present even on our amateur riffing style, I imagine it’s not hard to mimic for someone as gifted as Rutan. Track 6, 'Ritual Annihilation' has a hint of Hate Eternal’s epic sense of melody in the beginning but when the verse kicks in along with the vocals it is like a classic CC song. 'Overtorture' is faster and shorter; not like Pat’s ultra technical pieces, but it still kicks ass big time.

The rest of the album is a tribute to their earlier works, a way to distance themselves from the most technical stage of the band and to write more memorable songs. Both singles are credited to Rob Barrett and they actually take you back to the golden years of Chris Barnes’ era. When they came out I thought this record was going to be something like Butchered At Birth; in the end it sounded like Bloodthirst, another one of my top 3 alongside The Bleeding. Webster’s pieces are a little bit more technical with those insane bass lines, while they avoid falling in the wankery nonsense pit. Enjoyable as it gets, I recommend this to any Florida DM fan.

Rating: 8.9 out of 10

Review by Tobias on November 17, 2004.

Perhaps one of the coolest things in the history of ever has just happened: a few years ago, The Crown unleashed one of the greatest metal albums ever, Crowned in Terror, now, one release and a couple years later the band posthumously releases Crowned in Terror again with the band’s original vocalist, a few revamped pieces and a much better sound engineering. Crowned Unholy is that equally stunning work.

You read correctly, the word is posthumously. Of course I mean the ties that bind, not the band members themselves, are dead. For me, the fact that The Crown decided to split was perhaps one of the most depressing pieces of metal news to hit the scene in the past year or so. And you should be crying too if you missed out on this underground legend. Stunning guitar work, the songwriting sensibility of a rock ‘n roll god gone mad and vicious vocals that could trounce the best of them are foundations of The Crown. For you newbs, think melodic-death like The Haunted, but even better.

When Crowned in Terror came out initially I pretty much crapped my pants. The Crown had picked up legendary metal vocalist Tomas Lindberg (At the Gates, The Great Deceiver) and simply destroyed. After a tour in the US and some unfriendly drunken incidents, Lindberg was replaced with original vocalist Johan Lindstrand. The band recorded Possessed 13 and decided to call it a day. But it wasn’t quite the end, because The Crown opted to go back and re-record (note: not re-master) Crowned in Terror with Lindstrand.

Really the result is something like the re-releases of the original Star Wars movies. Crowned Unholy is newer, it’s smoother, it’s got cooler tricks, but it’s missing a little of what the rawness of Crowned in Terror provided. Some people can easily name one album over the other in preference, but I can’t. I love ‘em both. Take the new version of “Speed of Darkness”: I like it better than the original. On the other hand, I like the original version of “Satanist” a little better than the Lindstrand version. And this, folks, is precisely why this is one of the coolest things to happen in the history of ever. A superlative of an album was released twice, and twice it destroys all. Long live The Crown.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 10
Atmosphere: 10
Production: 10
Originality: 8
Overall: 10

Rating: 9.6 of 10