Entombed A.D. - Back to the Front

This line-up consists of sole founding member Lars Goran Petrov (vocals), along with Olle Dahlstedt (drums), Nico Elgstrand (guitar) and Victor Brandt (bass). This group has, somewhat unexpectedly, created the finest Entombed album since Black Breath’s Sentenced to Life (anyone?). It’s a crushing collection of tar-black, anvil-heavy Metal that is instantly identifiable on first listen and endlessly re-playable. It’s a diverse set, ranging from the moody, proggy swerves on “Bedlam Attack” to the gnarled blackened thrash of “The Underminer”, where Dahlstedt’s thunderous blastbeats and L.G.’s booming roar pummel the listener into blissful submission.

There’s one track on the record that could fool a listener into believing they were listening to an offcut from Wolverine Blues – and that honour goes to the riotous “Waiting For Death”. The rolling, barrelling rhythm owes a debt to South of Heaven-era Slayer and recalls heavy-duty Entombed numbers like “Eyemaster” and “Demon” – where the listener can literally feel the heft of the riff weighing down on them. It’s an impressive feat – made even more impressive by Petrov’s utterly deranged performance: L.G.’s barks and roars plumb lower depths than even he’s used to spewing out – you can quite clearly visualize his maniacal gaze when he recorded the vocal tracks. It’s a fantastic track and an album highlight for sure.

But the impressive moments don’t end there – the foursome brings another dose of testosterone-fuelled power to the table with “Second to None”. “Second to None” capitalises on the heaviness and chunkiness of Elgstrand’s riffing, and the gang backing vocals and relentless groove are first-rate. The creepy/hammy (delete where necessary) King Diamond/Alice Cooper-inspired horror-soundtrack intro to opener “Kill To Live” displays an alarmingly apparent sense of humour, seeing as the track itself is absolutely brutal death metal. Don’tcha think? The ominous, spiralling intro of “Eternal Woe” is a portentous heads-up for the full-on attack of the track that follows. The muscular tone of the riffing, in combination with a typically gruff Petrov vocal performance, brings all the necessary hallmarks of the Entombed sound to the track. The tempo-shifting assault of “Bait and Bleed”, along with the speed-metal swing of “Vulture and the Traitor”, fill the rest of the album out with undeniable style.The latter features the slowest, dirtiest doom-metal grind of any Entombed track in what seems like forever.

It might seem a touch speculative, but I think this could be the best Entombed record since Uprising (although others would argue that Morning Star is superior to that fine piece of work) – it’s the best record in this style since that aforementioned Black Breath masterpiece… and if you were feeling generous, you could say it’s the best Entombed album since Nicke left the band – it’s certainly among the most consistent. It’s a fantastic record from a group brave enough to still stand beneath the banner of a death metal institution, and it doesn’t disappoint. L.G. Petrov is both the band’s biggest draw and the band’s most valuable asset – Back to the Front would suggest that while he’s fronting a band called Entombed (A.D. or otherwise), the band can do no wrong. It’s also fun to see him sporting a Watain t-shirt in the promo shots for the album - both Swedish bands peddle the finest, most intense form of their particular strain of the devil’s music to the masses. Watain are on the precipice of straddling the world with their uncompromising black metal, and records like this prove that a reputation for intensity is more than enough to keep metalheads intrigued even when a band’s halcyon days appear to be over. Entombed are back - and boy, what an album to come back with, and one can only hope the new At The Gates collection nears the level of quality on display here.