There's a new band on the rise form the U.S. metal underground scene, they are called CROWN THE LOST and their first self-produced album "Reverence Dies Within" could awake your senses if like pure and true thrash metal mixed with classic metal and swedish/melodic death style. At last one of the best newcomer of 2006. Now to know something more about CROWN THE LOST, I have to "disturb" the guitar-player DAVID E. GEHLKE, speaking from Pittsburgh .....

Hello David, Marco is speaking from Italy.. Welcome to A DREAM IN STEEL webzine. So, can you tell me something about CROWN THE LOST history, in order to understand how you arrived to record your first album "Reverence Dies Within" ?

Crown the Lost was formed in April of 2005 by myself and our singer, Chris Renaldi. I had just got done playing with a band called Sinning Is Our Savior, who happened to feature Joe (Bonaddio, lead guitars), Ryan (Eicheldinger, bass) and Nick (Bentzel, drums), all of whom are now in
Crown the Lost. Sinning fizzled out for a number of reasons, but I wanted to start something that had clean singing and was in the thrash direction, but utilized a lot of extreme metal elements.

For the better part of 2005, Chris and I struggled with finding band members, so we
eventually bit the bullet and got Joe and Ryan to join. We've also gone through a couple of drummers in the last 8 months, but I think we've settled on Nick, who is a technical marvel and most of all, a good friend of ours. From about March of 2006 on, we devoted our time and
energy into writing and recording the album and it was completed in June of 2006 and released that September.

The first thing I noticed about you is that your first album shows a general good quality even though it was self-produced. Have you kept in touch with any label during this year, just to get a better promotion and distribution ?

We've been in touch with a few labels, all of whom have shown varying degrees of interest. We knew we had to self-release Reverence and now that it's been out for a year, it looks like it was the right decision.

From a visibility standpoint, the album has already exceeded our expectations given the high volume of reviews and press we've gotten, so I guess that goes to show an unsigned band can become visible. We have been looking for someone to re-release it just so it can be distributed properly and we currently have someone who is willing to do it, so that might actually come to fruition before year's end.

In my opinion "Reverence Dies Within" is an album showing a strong personality, an interesting mixture of classic metal elements, thrash and "Swedish" sound ... a rare characteristic in a band at its first work . Honestly, to you where does CROWN THE LOST strength lie ? and also in what do you think the band had to grow up?

I think our biggest strength is our variety and are uniqueness, although I use the term 'unique' loosely. A lot of that can be attributed to the fact we have two songwriters in the band (Joe and myself) and our styles are a study in contrast. Joe writes more of the chunky, brutal and straightforward material, while most of my stuff is more melodic and focuses more on the
vocals. Anyone who knows and/or listens to the band should be able to tell who wrote what and I think that's one of the cool things about Crown the Lost.

Joe's lead and harmony playing is central to what we do as well, and it wouldn't be a reach to say he's really the one who holds this band together. In terms of growing up and/or weaknesses, I think some of the drumming on Reverence could have been more tasteful and
thought-out. There are certain moments on the album that I wish we would have pulled back the reigns more, but I think that will be resolved on the next album since we have a different drummer. At least I would think so...

Which song ( or songs ) of the album is more representative for theideals you recognize in the band ? and why ?

I'm a fan of all nine songs on the album, but the few that stick out would be "Swear to the Peerless," "Prelude to Fall," "No Reprieve" and "Reverence Dies Within." Those four are still a regular part of our set and they properly represent how well-rounded the band is.

After I hear for the first time "Reverence Dies Within", it was inevitable to think that you guys have different background and musical tastes, can you talk me about this?

We all like metal, obviously, some styles more than others, but there are a few bands that we can all agree upon that are favorites of ours such as Blind Guardian, Katatonia, Maiden, Priest, and Mercenary.

While we are influenced by these bands, we don't try to mimic their sound or style. I
think that's a trap a lot of bands fall into - wearing your influences on your sleeve is fine for a while, but it can only take you so far and I think we're all cognizant of the idea that in order to create something worthwhile and interesting, it would be wise to forge our own path as opposed to traveling the one everyone else has been down.

How does CROWN THE LOST song writing work? Please explain the role
of each member inside the band...

As I noted before, Joe and I handle all the songwriting chores. We both have over-inflated egos and an abundance of material, so the only way to come to some level of compromise is to split everything. The band is a democracy, although it would appear from the outside that it's more about two guys doing everything, but all the guys contribute in some way, shape, or form.

Getting Nick back into the band has been a major plus, as he's very diligent in arranging his drum parts, so much so that we often rehearse the same song for hours upon hours just so he can get it right. Chris and Ryan both have a say in what we do, even though Chris tends to drag his feet when learning the lyrics and vocal arrangements, he always pulls through at the right time.