ENTRAILS - The Tomb Awaits CD
Dark Descent / FDA Rekotz
Genre: Death Metal
Rating: 5/5
Yes this is Old School Swedish Death Metal but no they are not another young band, surprised, I sure as hell was. Actually this band originally started out back in 1990 but never put anything out. If they did then their stuff would be sitting next to your DISMEMBER, ENTOMBED and GRAVE LPs right fuckin now. Also you wouldn't being reading a review of it by me. You would be reading a Scumfeast Metal Essentials column. But as the story goes the band split back in the day but one of their members, Jimmy aka: Bloodspill, restarted the band with a fresh line up in 2008 which includes former members of BIRDFLESH and DEFORMED. In 2010 they released the Tales from the Morgue full length on FDA Rekotz. Now here is their follow-up just to show everyone that their previous release was not just a bunch of dusted off demo tracks from the past and that they can stand toe to toe with any new band today. As long as they're playing OSDM of course.
Now just to be honest with ya (waitaminute I'm honest to a default) I don't have their debut so I'm only going on what I have here. The cover art was done by Daniel Devilish, obviously while he was staring at ENTOMBED's Left Hand Path. The mixing and mastering was done by, wait for it, Dan Swano. He even adds some guest vocals on here. Now maybe someone else would take all of that in, gives this a few listens and produce a cynical review. I'm not because this slab is really fuckin intense. When I typed that last sentence my veins were actually popping out from my neck. It seems that Jimmy aka: Bloodspill, this band's guitarist, will not be denied his righteous place along side the Swedish Death Metal elite even if it took twenty years to do so. Can you just imagine what it felt like for this guy whose been watching his peers get all the accolades for years on end while he's sitting on a goldmine of primo OSDM tracks? I'd shake the guy's fuckin hand for his patience alone. Then I'd shake it again just for putting out one of the best DM releases of 2011.
After the title cut, a minute plus acoustic instrumental which had me going "Whatafuck kind of joke is this", the carnage commences with "Unleashed Wrath". This is like standing of the side lines of a battlefield while you're watching two opposing armies, one Metal and the other crusty Hardcore, charge at each other like fuckin berzerkers. With the exception of some atmospheric elements and hellish screams, rivaling the battle wails of demonic spirits, this is just one onslaught from start to finish. "Crawling Death" is a full on headbanger with horned fists saluting. "Eaten by the Dead" is something ENTOMBED fans would love to hear done but never will again. Get this one instead people in fact vocalist Joakim Svensson sounds extremely close to L-G Petrov and with Dan Swano twisting the knobs you can guess how crunchy these riffs are. At times it's like the sound of multiple bones snapping. (don't you just love that sound?) Near the middle part of this release ENTRAILS gives you a second to breath with the crawling death doom of "To Live is to Rot" followed up by the more rocking slam fest of "Undead".
The second half of The Tomb Awaits does not let up one bit like there's an never ending war going on. Close your eyes while listening to "The Slithering Below" or "End of All Existence" and you can picture this band on stage with every soul in the audience crashing into one another in sickening delight. That's the coolest thing about original OSDM, you could start a pit to it and everyone would be in it. There were very few shoegazers standing in the middle of the crowds back in the day. They ran to the back of the venues as soon as all hell broke lose or else they would end up as human paste on the floor. Now within all of this war rage this band can tone it down to a melodic level like on "Remains in Red", "Collection of Cracked Heads" and to a degree "Total Death" but not to the point of that dirty word 'mello-death". When the final cut (on my first listen to this I couldn't believe I made it to the final cut without being inspired to take a flamethrower to my neighborhood) "Unspeakable Obscenities" was playing I ran over to my CD wall just to check if all of my DISMEMBER discs were there. Yes people this release has it all, riffs, vocals, great drum work and not least of all some excellent solo work which I failed to mention earlier. ENTRAILS even ends this masterpiece with what sounds like demonic creatures being pushed back into the hole from which they were unleashed. For another time obviously and yes there will be other times.
Label: http://www.darkdescentrecords.com/
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