When Swedish death metal bands started adding a little melody to their sound, it was something truly exciting. Bands like Eucharist, Unanimated, In Flames, Dark Tranquility, and At the Gates were creating some great albums and a lot of buzz. It's almost a decade later, and it's a little difficult to be thrilled about melodic death metal anymore. Not only is American waist deep in metalcore bands doing their best to rip off Slaughter of the Soul, many of the Swedish bands have seen better days. Not that Soilwork or In Flames are doing anything truly awful, but their newer work is definitely a step down from what they've done before.

The Crown began life in the early 90s as a melodic Swedish death metal band, but unlike a lot of their contemporaries, the band hasn't traded in their heaviness for a more commercial sound. If anything, the melody has take a less prominent role in the past few years in favor of more aggressive influences. The band takes various extreme metal influences, throws them in a blender, and ends up with an album like Possessed 13. The band hasn't really changed much in the past few albums, but when the results are this good, you won't have any reason to complain

The Crown draws a lot of inspiration from the older Swedish death metal bands, as well the thrash metal bands of the 80s. The Crown wear their influences on their sleeve; the band's logo is designed to look like the old Earache records logo, and the track list includes titles like "Kill 'Em All" and "Are You Morbid?". Most of the songs, like "Face of Destruction - Deep Hit of Death" and "Zombified" are fairly fast, although they do slow things down for songs like "Morningstar Rising". It's fairly straightforward death metal, although The Crown really has a knack for creating distinctive songs. There's very little filler here.

This album also features the return of singer Johan Lindstrand, whose throaty roar makes him one of the more distinctive Swedish death metal vocalists. Former At The Gates vocalist Tomas Lindberg joined the band for their previous album, but I don't think he was as well suited to the band as Johan is.

Like a lot of albums from Metal Blade records these days, the album comes with a bonus CD. It contains their first recorded song "Last Rite", a demo version of their song "Rebel Angel", their demos Forever Heaven Gone and Forget The Light, and a cover of Bathory's "Burnin' Leather". The demos are kind of neat, although I think the band has done better work. The Bathory cover is excellent, though. I was disappointed the band's covers of Sepultura's "Arise" and Slayer's "Mandatory Suicide" were not included, but overall this is a really nice bonus disc.

There are rumors this will be the final album from the band; I hope that's not true, because Possessed 13 cements The Crown's position at the very forefront of Swedish death metal. This is a fine album and it is highly recommended for all death metal fans.