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Rating: There's no need to spend many introductory words on the Swedish band Entombed; their debut album released in 1990, "Left Hand Path," remains, even twenty-five years after its release, one of the best albums in the entire Death Metal genre. They have inspired with their brutal sound a myriad of bands, especially in Europe.
This is an EP released in 1993, which served as a deadly appetizer to that "Wolverine Blues," considered by many to be their peak. It's drummer Nicke Andersson, always the more "rock 'n' roll" soul of the band, who decisively takes the reins, going on to write five of the six tracks that make up the work; they decide to explore new paths, introducing in their sonic extremism slower, malign parts, yet no less ferocious from an auditory perspective. A new vile and blackened creature is born: Death 'n' Roll. It's quite easy to associate the cover image with this radical, dark, and ominous turn of the band.
Not by chance is the title track chosen to start the album; a track where Lars' infested voice becomes the immediate protagonist, with the two guitars of Alex and Ulf creating a cyclopean sonic wall, leaving no escape. The finale is a murderous slash: Nicke's double bass drum guides the subsequent apocalyptic sonic assault of all the other instruments that are sodomized, violated, producing something insurmountable. Four and a half minutes is the duration of one of the best songs ever composed by the band (try listening to it, watching your back).
The very brief "Serpent Speech" brings the sound back to a more canonical Death Metal, yet no less fierce, with an execution speed that is pure madness; an almost Hardcore approach, with that crushing impact of the guitars, always one of the group's characteristics. A track that ends with a burst of machine gun fire that sends shivers down my spine with each listen.
Side B of my vinyl opens with "Bonehouse," another lethal ride, with a central part that suddenly turns to a hallucinated mid-tempo; but the pause is of short duration because in the finale there's a new acceleration that is a gut punch of unmatched power. It's the six minutes of the cover of "Hellraiser," a song written by Christopher Young for the film of the same name, that concludes the work; a new overwhelming display of strength by Entombed. A dark and smoky nocturnal journey that takes you by the hand, a cold and dead hand, leading you towards the abyss, towards nothingness, towards the Underworld: chilling.
For me, a masterpiece, the best Death Metal EP ever released; not even Napalm Death and Carcass, with their short-format works, can compete with this mephistophelian discographic creation.
Ad Maiora.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Serpent Speech (02:11)
a serpent crawls in the ashes
in the remains of human misery
awake but sleeping in the hour of disgust
behind bars your mind is free
sleeping-pills of wormwood
taken by mother insane - but
life goes on - life goes on
towards death in the fast line
genocide, no more lies
the modern man is a freak
shut your eyes, suicide
the serpent laughs as we speak
[Lead: Cederlund]
come and join us in the reptile dance
dance with me and the devil - we
fucked it up - fucked it up
and we'll keep fucking it up as we
level
03 Wolverine Blues (02:12)
What you believe
Is the vanity you conceive
What you love u don't pen
To put in a cage is to put to an end
Enamoured of the passion
Life-sucking lust
You will never gain my trust
I'm a misanthropical breed
Insatiable in my need to feed
Utterly fearless
For your luscious flesh
I've got an appetite like a war
And I always hunger for more
Vicious mammal
The blood is my call
Pound for pound
I am the most vicious of all
04 Bonehouse (03:39)
can't find a real answer
it's all the same
but when it all comes around
I guess it's kinda lame.
I can hear you screaming
when it gets into your vein
your high is repulsive
so full of pain.
my soul's circumsition
breed to give head
liquid house of raindrops
turn out to be dead.
Returning to soma
equinox of grief
my next incarnation in-
bonehouse
and it's about to crack
in this house of bones
now heads start rolling
insted of stones.
oblivions wounds
dumb fuck despair
if I can't suck life deeper
how could I care
get stoned
get dead
inside my flesh
the house of bones
[Lead: Cederlund]
[Lead: Hellid]
blind eyes of opium dreams
every time I get this far
atmospheric distortion
it's way to loud at the dead gods bar
05 Put Off the Scent (03:19)
[lyrics: Hellid, music: Andersson]
are you of the kind
who use to leave yourself
temporarely
transform into someone else
are you of the kind
who's got a face on each side
a split personality
whose only truth is lie
you might have been - where I've been
you might have seen - just what I've seen
but you didn't go where I went
you were just put off the scent
what would it take for you to realize
that you're following a fool
you think you're a part of something
but you are merely a tool
[Lead: Cederlund Lead: Hellid]
[Lead: Cederlund]
are you of the kind
who can say nothing in a million ways
embellishment will never conquer
the beauty that the ugly truth
portrays
06 Hellraiser (05:44)
I'm living on an endless road
Around the world for rock and roll
Sometimes it feels so tough
But I still ain't had enough
I keep saying that it's getting too much
But I know I'm a liar
Feeling all right in the noise and the light
But that's what lights my fire
Hellraiser,
In the thunder and heat
Hellraiser,
Rock you back in your seat
Hellraiser,
And I'll make it come true
Hellraiser,
I'll put a spell on you
Walking out on another stage,
Another town, another place
Sometimes I don't feel right
Nerves wound up too damn tight
People keep telling me it's bad for my health
But kicking back don't make it
Out of control,
I play the ultimate role
But that's what lights my fire
Hellraiser,
In the thunder and heat
Hellraiser,
Rock you back in your seat
Hellraiser,
And I'll make it come true
Hellraiser,
I'll put a spell on you
I'm living on an endless road
Around the world for rock and roll
Sometimes it feels so tough
But I still ain't had enough
I keep saying that it's getting too much
But I know I'm a liar
Feeling all right in the noise and the light
But that's what lights my fire
Hellraiser,
In the thunder and heat
Hellraiser,
Rock you back in your seat
Hellraiser,
And I'll make it come true
Hellraiser,
I'll put a spell on you
07 God of Thunder (04:43)
You've got something about you
You've got something I need
Daughter of Aphrodite
Hear my words and take heed
I was born on Olympus
To my father a son
I was raised by the demons
Trained to reign as the one
God of thunder and rock and roll
The spell you're under
Will slowly rob you of your virgin soul
I'm the lord of the wastelands
A modern day man of steel
I gather darkness to please me
And I command you to kneel
Before the
God of thunder and rock and roll
The spell you're under
Will slowly rob you of your virgin soul
I am the lord of the wastelands
A modern day man of steel
I gather darkness to please me
And I command thee to kneel
Before the
God of thunder and rock and roll
The spell you're under
Will slowly rob you of your virgin soul
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