Artist: Entrails
Title: The Tomb Awaits
Type: Album
Label: FDA Rekotz/Dark Decent Records

Sweden and Old School Death metal go hand in hand, this is one of my favourite genres and in recent months, there has been a plethora of good quality releases coming from this country, especially from these two records labels. Entrails for me are the jewel in the crown, the pick of the bunch. Not only do you have an unearthly tone (mixed and mastered in Unisound Studios by none other than Death metal legend Dan Swanö) but the rotten aspect through the vocals really warms your black heart and thoroughly kicks your ribcage into submission when the volume notch is tweaked up. The band logo and style immediately takes you to Entombed and other contemporaries by comparison, so why is this album any different? Well for one, Entrails formed and recorded demos over 20 years ago, this second album is due to a recent reactivation in 2008, and secondly, with the modern production values and mass of Swe-Death releases this year, Entrails win hands down in the production stakes, this is very heavy, much like the recent Demonical effort, but with a more earthly tone to it.

Song wise, you have d-beat infused fast paced barrages of speaker wrecking tones, no death n roll, simply old death metal, perfect…and in the more melodic sections and songs (yes they do exist!), tracks like ‘Collection of Cracked Heads’ really brings out the behemoth in sonic sound abuse. If it is speed you are after, then ‘Total Death’ and ‘Remains in Red’ hits that check box. Essentially, this is everything that you would want from an old school Swedish death metal album, right down to the excellent album cover, you immediately know what you are going to get. The band make no apologies for their style, they happily quote on their website “Entrails doesn't come with something new in style. Entrails do what the Swedish death metal did best 20 years ago”.

Entrails and their ‘The Tomb Awaits’ have the stand out release in this genre so far this year. In 20 years you could be talking about this album the way people talk about Entombed and Dismember’s first couple of releases, yes, I stick my neck out and say it is that good. Burying some of their contemporaries with a perfect balance in the recorded production, Entrails have the ammo to take this juggernaut to far flung places of the globe, and still sound refreshing in each filthy underground torture chamber that would pass as a live venue. ‘The Tomb Awaits’ is a master class and a future classic album in Swedish Death Metal terms…

http://www.myspace.com/entrailsreborn

http://www.fda-rekotz.com/gx

Paul Maddison

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