My favourite Swedeath album from 2013 surely (or at least: probably) was Raging Death, the third studio album by EntrailS, an act that was actually formed during the very early nineties. For the review, including an extended biography, I’d like to invite you to check out the review undersigned wrote, posted on September 7th 2013 (enter the band’s name in the ‘search’-tab to find it back immediately). I will not come back to the band’s history right here, right now, for it has been done on that former review. Yes, I’m lazy…
Founding member Jimmy Lundqvist started writing the material for this fourth album in 2014, and the recordings were finished in early 2015. Once again (legendary) long-time collaborator Dan Swanö took care of mix and mastering, and the album got released, also once again, via Metal Blade Records.
Obliteration has a total running time of forty two minutes and actually it is, once again, of the very same sh*t! And that’s just fine!
Seriously, with Obliteration, EntrailS once again bring that kind of protagonistic Death Metal that sort of characterised the earliest scene of the Southern half of Sweden anno late Eighties – early Nineties. It has everything that made the scene back then (and back there) so superior: quite evident yet well-performed song structures, gurgling grunts and growls, a massive rhythm section, fabulous leads and solos, and that characteristic production sound, which has never, ever, been copied all over the globe, at least not with the very same intensity and persuasion. But when talking about EntrailS, there is even more to be proud of. They do have that specific epic pride that also characterises later releases from, let’s say, and well, why not, the likes of Unleashed (though they were ‘there’ ‘back then’ already) or Amon Amarth. But still the main focus lies on the origins of the deadly evilness that conquered the Metal-worlds from out of Swedish soil.
One might think: another album within this specific vein, or this band doing the very same shit all over again. And who am I to disagree with that thought, for indeed this is an xxx’th interpretation of the whole story. It might depend on your mood if you go crazy because of ecstatic enthusiasm, or if you go nuts of boredom, but the most fair thing might be to search, at least, a balance in between. Personally, for what it’s worth, I think Raging Death had something more to add than Obliteration, but that isn’t but undersigned’s subjective personal opinion, okay. But even the most convinced fans must admit that there is less excitement (and less variety???) than before…
Quite impressive, I have to admit, is the band’s interpretation of the legendary Marche Funèbre at the end of Epitome Of Death (not original, but really fitting right here), but the maintenance of the sound akin to the early years (think Entombed, Morbid, Unleashed, Grave, Dismember, well, you know what I am referring too) is a surplus for sure too. But for sure each single piece, and then I do really mean ‘each single piece’, is of a top-quality. Fans of the Swedish Old School etc… You know…