Crown of Thornz

Crown of Thornz
Crown of Thornz
Origin	New York City, New York, U.S.
Genres	Beatdown hardcore; melodic hardcore;
Years active	1994–1998, 2012–present
Labels	Equal Vision, Another Planet, Bridge Nine, Durty Mick
Spinoffs	Skarhead; Icepick;
Members	Danny Diablo; Mike Dijan; Dimi Douvas; Paul Delaney;
Past members	Franklin Rhi; Marcos "Jere" Rodriguez; Steve O'Brien; Eric "Goat" Arce; Matthew Mangiaracina; Rigg Ross; Brett Evans; Brian Daniels;

Crown of Thornz are a hardcore punk band, formed in New York City in 1994. By their 1998 disbandment, they were one of the most prominent groups in New York hardcore.^[1] They released only one EP, Train Yard Blues (1995); one studio album, Mentally Vexed (1996); and one split single with Aggressive Dogs (1998). Following their 2012 reunion, they have release the two track single Nothing But Tragedy.

Quick Facts Origin, Genres ...

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When Diablo decided to form a band in 1994, he recruited Franklin Rhi, who at the time was playing bass for 108. Diablo then decided to audition five guitar plays simultaneously, having Merauder and Dmize vocalist Marcos "Jere" Rodriguez sit in on drums. However, Rhi, Rodriguez and Diablo were unimpressed by the guitar players. In response, Rhi called Mike Dijan, former guitarist of Breakdown and asked him to come to the rehearsal space and play to help improve the situation. When Dijan arrived he began to play with Rhi, Rodriguez and Diablo, and soon the five auditionees put down their guitars and watched as they wrote the song that would become the Crown of Thornz song "Mental Masquerade".^[2] After this, Diablo informed Dijan that he was now a part of the band, and they recruited Dimi Douvas of Dmize to be a permanent drummer, and began to rehearse in his basement. After two months, the band had only written two songs, however Diablo informed them that he had booked them to soon open for Killing Time at the Grant. This led to the band beginning to rehearse every day, during which time they wrote the entirety of the Train Yard Blues EP.^[3]

The name "Crown of Thorns" was derived from when Diablo was eating a thornback guitarfish in sushi, and decided he wanted to name the band something including the word "thorns". He decided on a play on Jesus' crown of thorns thinking it would be ironic because of his Jewish faith.^[4] Train Yard Blues was released in 1995 through Equal Vision Records,^[5] by which time Rhi had been replaced by Steve O'Brien. The following year, they released their debut album Mentally Vexed through Another Planet Records.^[6] In 1998, they released a split single with Aggressive Dogs, then disbanded by the end of the year.^[7]

Between June 11 and 23, 2013, they toured the United States supporting Rancid, alongside the Transplants.^[8] They performed at United Blood Festival 2015, which took place on May 17.^[9] On August 14, 2015, they released the two track single "Nothing But Tragedy",^[7] with Diablo on vocals, Matthew Mangiaracina on guitar and Rigg Ross on drums.^[10]

Between May 5 and September 24, 2022, they toured the United States supporting Sick of It All and Agnostic Front as co-headliners.^[11] They performed at FYA Festival 9, which took place January 7 and 8, 2023.^[12] On January 28 and 29, 2023, they opened for Trapped Under Ice in New York alongside Bulldoze and Pain of Truth.^[13] On April 29th, 2023, they performed at Tompkins Square Park alongside Madball and Murphy's Law.^[14] On November 23, 2024, they will perform at Irving Plaza, alongside Killing Time and Vision of Disorder to raise money for Sick of It All vocalist Lou Koller and his battle with esophageal cancer.^[15]

Crown of Thornz played a mid-tempo style of hardcore punk which put an emphasis on rhythm and made use of emotional vocals and lyrics.^[16]^[7] They drew on the influence of the Cro-Mags and Agnostic Front's crossover thrash eras.^[7] Original guitarist Mike Dijan cited his influences on the band as the Cro-Mags's 1992 album Alpha Omega, Slayer and the genres of darkwave and punk rock.^[17] Following their reunion, they began to incorporate elements of metalcore.^[18] Critics have categorized their music as beatdown hardcore^[19] and melodic hardcore.^[20]

They have been cited as influence by bands including Higher Power,^[21] Never Ending Game,^[22] Regulate,^[23] Trapped Under Ice,^[24] and Joey Chiaramonte of Koyo,^[25] in addition to being covered by Narrow Head.^[26]

Current

Danny Diablo – vocals (1994–1998, 2012–present)
Mike Dijan – guitar (1994–1998, 2017–present)
Dimi Douvas – drums (1994–1997, 2013, 2017–present)
Paul Delaney – bass (2021–present)

Former

Franklin Rhi – bass (1994–1995)
Marcos "Jere" Rodriguez – drums (1994)
Steve O'Brien – bass (1995–1998)
Eric "Goat" Arce – drums (1997-1998)
Matthew Mangiaracina – guitar (2012–2017)
Rigg Ross – drums (2012–2017)
Brett Evans – bass (2012–2021)
Brian Daniels – guitar (2012–2021)

Albums

Mentally Vexed (1996)

EPs

Train Yard Blues (1995)

Singles

Crown of Thornz / Aggressive Dogs (1998, split single with Aggressive Dogs)
Nothing But Tragedy (2015)

[1]
Stahl, Michael. "The Last Time New York Was Hardcore". Retrieved 11 June 2021.
[2]
Mike Dijan, Colin Young, Bo Lueders, Dan Seely (2024-06-06). New York HardLore: Mike Dijan of Crown of Thornz & Breakdown (Astoria/Queens) (Podcast). Knotfest. Event occurs at 35m. Retrieved 2024-09-29. One day Franklin [Rhi] calls me up and is like "Yo, what are you doing right now?" I was like "Nothing, chilling." He was like "Yo, am at a rehearsal, Ezec wants to start a band and he's auditioning five guitar players at the same time, in the same room. And I was like "Oh that's weird." And he was like "Dude, these guys suck, I'm having a rough time here like, can you just come down here and jam with me, just so we can salvage what's going on here. So I didn't go there with any intention of starting a band, I'm going there because Franklin asked me to come down. Just help out a friend. I go, I set what's up to everybody, I plug in and I just started noodling around. By the end of the rehearsal, the five guys that he had to audition sat there and watched me, Franklin and the drummer was of Dmize at the time [Marcos "Jere" Rodriguez] write the first Crown of Thornz song, "Mental Masquerade".
[3]
Mike Dijan, Colin Young, Bo Lueders, Dan Seely (2024-06-06). New York HardLore: Mike Dijan of Crown of Thornz & Breakdown (Astoria/Queens) (Podcast). Knotfest. Event occurs at 39m. Retrieved 2024-09-29. Danny was like "I'll see you next week." It wound up being myself, Franklin and Danny, that was the original thing, Jere from Dmize had just sat in. We were on a mission to find a drummer and Franklin went to high school with Dimi [Douvas]... Dimi's mom would let us jam in her basement and we wrote the EP in Dimi's mom's basement. We were a band for, I don't know, two months or something, and we only like two songs and then Danny's like "Yo we got a show", so I was like "Shit, I've gotta write more songs, alright, we've got to go to Dimi's basement every day. The first EP came together quickly." It had to, because we were opening for Killing Time on our first show at a club called the Grant, early '94.
[4]
N.Y.H.C. (Documentary). New York City: Pavich, HALO 8 Entertainment. 1999. Event occurs at 55m50s. People always says "That's a great name". You know what's funny: one day I was eating sushi and there's some fish called thornback, so I wanted to do something with thorns, so I said crown of thorns. I'm Jewish right, my mother hates that.
[5]
Filicetti, Gino. "Crown of Thornz - _Train Yard Blues_". Chronicles of Chaos. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
[6]
Blush, Steven (4 October 2016). New York Rock From the Rise of The Velvet Underground to the Fall of CBGB. St. Martin's Publishing Group. Crown of Thornz came from the NYHC hotbed of Jackson Heights (Gorilla Biscuits, Raw Deal, The Mob). Sick of It All roadie Danny Diablo (Singer), son of a Jewish NYPD cop and Puerto Rican mom, fronted a thug-core group with guitarist Mike Dijan, bassist Steve O'Brien, and drummer Dimi on 1995's Train Yard Blues (Equal Vision) and 1996's Mentally Vexed (Another Planet).
[7]
"CROWN OF THORNZ RELEASE NEW TRACK!". Retrieved 6 October 2024.
[8]
PAUL, AUBIN. "Rancid / Transplants / Crown of Thornz". Retrieved 6 October 2024.
[9]
"Crumbsuckers reuniting again for Black & Blue Bowl (which added more bands); United Blood Fest lineup announced". Retrieved 6 October 2024.
[10]
"Nothing But Tragedy Crown of Thornz". AllMusic. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
[11]
Hadusek, Jon. "Sick of It All and Agnostic Front Announce Co-Headlining 2022 US Tour". Consequence. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
[12]
Sacher, Andrew. "FYA 9 Lineup (Life of Agony, Cold World, Drain, Fiddlehead, Sunami, No Pressure & more)". Retrieved 6 October 2024.
[13]
Sacher, Andrew. "Trapped Under Ice returned with 2 shows (Disturbin' The Peace pics & NYC review with Bulldoze, Crown of Thornz & more)". Retrieved 6 October 2024.
[14]
ARRIETA, VALENTINA. "Madball, Murphy's Law, Crown of Thornz at Tompkins Square Park on April 29th, 2023". Retrieved 6 October 2024.
[15]
ADAMS, GREGORY. "VISION OF DISORDER, LIFE OF AGONY AND MORE ANNOUNCE BENEFIT SHOW FOR SICK OF IT ALL'S LOU KOLLER". Revolver. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
[16]
Ramirez, Carlos. "Life's Question are injecting flair and technicality into hardcore". Retrieved 6 October 2024.
[17]
Mike Dijan, Colin Young, Bo Lueders, Dan Seely (2024-06-06). New York HardLore: Mike Dijan of Crown of Thornz & Breakdown (Astoria/Queens) (Podcast). Knotfest. Event occurs at 38m. Retrieved 2024-09-29. I was just noodling around, I was listening to anything and everything at the time. One top of the [Alpha Omega] Cro-Mags thing, I'd be listening to a lot of Slayer, be listening to a lot of darkwave, a lot of punk. It just felt really loose.
[18]
James, Daniel. "Crown of Thornz Nothing But Tragedy [single] (2015)". Retrieved 6 October 2024.
[19]
Sacher, Andrew. "Out of Step: 11 albums that pushed hardcore towards its current genre-defying moment". Retrieved 6 October 2024.
[20]
CENTRONE, MICHAEL. "ALBUM REVIEW: NEQUIENT – DARKER THAN DEATH OR NIGHT". Retrieved 6 October 2024.
[21]
"Higher Power". Archived from the original on 24 October 2019. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
[22]
"Never Ending Game". Soulcraft (3). Spring 2021. Yeah we love all the classic NYHC. Lotta Bio influence in our sound. I think the 90s era of hardcore is our biggest influence so there's too many bands to name… but to name a few - Cold As Life, Next Step Up, Crown of Thornz, Bulldoze, Earthmover, One Second Thought, Second to None, Krutch, etc.
[23]
Sacher, Andrew. "Regulate on how their new LP was inspired by James Brown, Bloc Party, Bad Brains, Santana & more". Retrieved 6 October 2024.
[24]
Sam Trapkin, Colin Young, Bo Lueders (2024-09-26). HardLore: Sam Trapkin (Trapped Under Ice) (Podcast). Knotfest. Event occurs at 31m40s; 33m20s. Retrieved 2024-09-29. I think we had that vision though for the band, cause like again we were coming straight out of a full summer of [listening to] State of the World Address, which is like a pretty rappy record. Early vision of the band was like heavy, Justice definitely had the Crown of Thornz type of influence... Integrity was pretty popular then, I remember hearing Integrity doing [this style of bar chord], so I think those were possible influences. I discovered Merauder super early and that was huge.
[25]
Sacher, Andrew. "Koyo interview: from side project to gunning for the Long Island emo/hardcore canon". Retrieved 6 October 2024.
[26]
ADAMS, GREGORY. "HEAR NARROW HEAD'S SLAMMING NEW CROWN OF THORNZ COVER". Revolver. Retrieved 6 October 2024.

[1] [1]
Stahl, Michael. "The Last Time New York Was Hardcore". Retrieved 11 June 2021.

[2] [2]
Mike Dijan, Colin Young, Bo Lueders, Dan Seely (2024-06-06). New York HardLore: Mike Dijan of Crown of Thornz & Breakdown (Astoria/Queens) (Podcast). Knotfest. Event occurs at 35m. Retrieved 2024-09-29. One day Franklin [Rhi] calls me up and is like "Yo, what are you doing right now?" I was like "Nothing, chilling." He was like "Yo, am at a rehearsal, Ezec wants to start a band and he's auditioning five guitar players at the same time, in the same room. And I was like "Oh that's weird." And he was like "Dude, these guys suck, I'm having a rough time here like, can you just come down here and jam with me, just so we can salvage what's going on here. So I didn't go there with any intention of starting a band, I'm going there because Franklin asked me to come down. Just help out a friend. I go, I set what's up to everybody, I plug in and I just started noodling around. By the end of the rehearsal, the five guys that he had to audition sat there and watched me, Franklin and the drummer was of Dmize at the time [Marcos "Jere" Rodriguez] write the first Crown of Thornz song, "Mental Masquerade".

[3] [3]
Mike Dijan, Colin Young, Bo Lueders, Dan Seely (2024-06-06). New York HardLore: Mike Dijan of Crown of Thornz & Breakdown (Astoria/Queens) (Podcast). Knotfest. Event occurs at 39m. Retrieved 2024-09-29. Danny was like "I'll see you next week." It wound up being myself, Franklin and Danny, that was the original thing, Jere from Dmize had just sat in. We were on a mission to find a drummer and Franklin went to high school with Dimi [Douvas]... Dimi's mom would let us jam in her basement and we wrote the EP in Dimi's mom's basement. We were a band for, I don't know, two months or something, and we only like two songs and then Danny's like "Yo we got a show", so I was like "Shit, I've gotta write more songs, alright, we've got to go to Dimi's basement every day. The first EP came together quickly." It had to, because we were opening for Killing Time on our first show at a club called the Grant, early '94.

[4] [4]
N.Y.H.C. (Documentary). New York City: Pavich, HALO 8 Entertainment. 1999. Event occurs at 55m50s. People always says "That's a great name". You know what's funny: one day I was eating sushi and there's some fish called thornback, so I wanted to do something with thorns, so I said crown of thorns. I'm Jewish right, my mother hates that.

[5] [5]
Filicetti, Gino. "Crown of Thornz - _Train Yard Blues_". Chronicles of Chaos. Retrieved 6 October 2024.

[6] [6]
Blush, Steven (4 October 2016). New York Rock From the Rise of The Velvet Underground to the Fall of CBGB. St. Martin's Publishing Group. Crown of Thornz came from the NYHC hotbed of Jackson Heights (Gorilla Biscuits, Raw Deal, The Mob). Sick of It All roadie Danny Diablo (Singer), son of a Jewish NYPD cop and Puerto Rican mom, fronted a thug-core group with guitarist Mike Dijan, bassist Steve O'Brien, and drummer Dimi on 1995's Train Yard Blues (Equal Vision) and 1996's Mentally Vexed (Another Planet).

[Idioteq,_2015-7] [7]
"CROWN OF THORNZ RELEASE NEW TRACK!". Retrieved 6 October 2024.

[8] [8]
PAUL, AUBIN. "Rancid / Transplants / Crown of Thornz". Retrieved 6 October 2024.

[9] [9]
"Crumbsuckers reuniting again for Black & Blue Bowl (which added more bands); United Blood Fest lineup announced". Retrieved 6 October 2024.

[10] [10]
"Nothing But Tragedy Crown of Thornz". AllMusic. Retrieved 6 October 2024.

[11] [11]
Hadusek, Jon. "Sick of It All and Agnostic Front Announce Co-Headlining 2022 US Tour". Consequence. Retrieved 6 October 2024.

[12] [12]
Sacher, Andrew. "FYA 9 Lineup (Life of Agony, Cold World, Drain, Fiddlehead, Sunami, No Pressure & more)". Retrieved 6 October 2024.

[13] [13]
Sacher, Andrew. "Trapped Under Ice returned with 2 shows (Disturbin' The Peace pics & NYC review with Bulldoze, Crown of Thornz & more)". Retrieved 6 October 2024.

[14] [14]
ARRIETA, VALENTINA. "Madball, Murphy's Law, Crown of Thornz at Tompkins Square Park on April 29th, 2023". Retrieved 6 October 2024.

[15] [15]
ADAMS, GREGORY. "VISION OF DISORDER, LIFE OF AGONY AND MORE ANNOUNCE BENEFIT SHOW FOR SICK OF IT ALL'S LOU KOLLER". Revolver. Retrieved 6 October 2024.

[16] [16]
Ramirez, Carlos. "Life's Question are injecting flair and technicality into hardcore". Retrieved 6 October 2024.

[17] [17]
Mike Dijan, Colin Young, Bo Lueders, Dan Seely (2024-06-06). New York HardLore: Mike Dijan of Crown of Thornz & Breakdown (Astoria/Queens) (Podcast). Knotfest. Event occurs at 38m. Retrieved 2024-09-29. I was just noodling around, I was listening to anything and everything at the time. One top of the [Alpha Omega] Cro-Mags thing, I'd be listening to a lot of Slayer, be listening to a lot of darkwave, a lot of punk. It just felt really loose.

[18] [18]
James, Daniel. "Crown of Thornz Nothing But Tragedy [single] (2015)". Retrieved 6 October 2024.

[19] [19]
Sacher, Andrew. "Out of Step: 11 albums that pushed hardcore towards its current genre-defying moment". Retrieved 6 October 2024.

[20] [20]
CENTRONE, MICHAEL. "ALBUM REVIEW: NEQUIENT – DARKER THAN DEATH OR NIGHT". Retrieved 6 October 2024.

[21] [21]
"Higher Power". Archived from the original on 24 October 2019. Retrieved 24 October 2019.

[22] [22]
"Never Ending Game". Soulcraft (3). Spring 2021. Yeah we love all the classic NYHC. Lotta Bio influence in our sound. I think the 90s era of hardcore is our biggest influence so there's too many bands to name… but to name a few - Cold As Life, Next Step Up, Crown of Thornz, Bulldoze, Earthmover, One Second Thought, Second to None, Krutch, etc.

[23] [23]
Sacher, Andrew. "Regulate on how their new LP was inspired by James Brown, Bloc Party, Bad Brains, Santana & more". Retrieved 6 October 2024.

[24] [24]
Sam Trapkin, Colin Young, Bo Lueders (2024-09-26). HardLore: Sam Trapkin (Trapped Under Ice) (Podcast). Knotfest. Event occurs at 31m40s; 33m20s. Retrieved 2024-09-29. I think we had that vision though for the band, cause like again we were coming straight out of a full summer of [listening to] State of the World Address, which is like a pretty rappy record. Early vision of the band was like heavy, Justice definitely had the Crown of Thornz type of influence... Integrity was pretty popular then, I remember hearing Integrity doing [this style of bar chord], so I think those were possible influences. I discovered Merauder super early and that was huge.

[25] [25]
Sacher, Andrew. "Koyo interview: from side project to gunning for the Long Island emo/hardcore canon". Retrieved 6 October 2024.

[26] [26]
ADAMS, GREGORY. "HEAR NARROW HEAD'S SLAMMING NEW CROWN OF THORNZ COVER". Revolver. Retrieved 6 October 2024.

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Crown of Thornz

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Musical style and legacy

Members

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References