Entombed

Serpent Saints

Candlelight Records 2007

Lately I've completely lost interest in Entombed.  Their last 3 or 4 albums have been completely boring and worthless to me.  They had no memorable riffs and they lacked any sort of catchiness.  Not so on Serpent Saints which to me is probably the best Entombed album since Wolverine Blues. (It took me awhile to figure out this album since the tracklisting is fucked up on the promo).  The typical low end guitar hums out immediately and some groove laden old school Swedish riffing bursts out of the speakers identifying it immediately.  Each song is memorable and distinguishable from the others on the album.  Some of the songs hit like a hammer (Thy Kingdom Coma) and others are more measured (The Dead, the Dying, and the Dying to be Dead) and some are a little boring (In the Blood).  There is a certain Death N Roll vibe to a lot of the songs on here and is especially evident on the driving When in Sodom with its catchy chorus and female vocal accent.  My favorite song though is the tribute to old school death metal, Masters of Death which opens with the same lyrics to a Master/Deathstrike classic and lyrically references every major early death and proto death band on the planet from Kreator to Celtic Frost to Death and Possessed.  Not to mention it sounds like classic Entombed with its sludge thick yet mildly melodic main riff.  Other than that the lyrics are still a little childish to me, I mean I don't need to hear lines like "with your heart on a stick while you are choking on your dick."  And frankly Entombed is better than that.  One other note is that L.G. Petrov's vocals are stronger on this album than they have been for quite awhile and the real "death metal" quality about them has been pretty much restored.  One of things that has been so disappointing to me is that Entombed circa Left Hand Path/Clandestine era was pretty much my favorite band but following Wolverine Blues they seemed to sort of die off creatively.  If they keep things going in this direction it might actually be worth my time to follow Entombed again.