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Entrails: Raging death
17/06/13 || Pr0nogo
DEATH RAGES
You’d think a band that gets confused with Entombed based on the logo alone would do something – anything – other than release a full-length with a title that has anything to do with death or rage. Not one to defy metal stereotypes, Swedish death metal outfit Entrails decided to fuse both rage and death with their third studio album, “Raging Death”. It’s kind of like the latest Sodom album in that judging by its cover (and the stereotypes showcased within), you’d think the latest offering from these Swedes would be a hilariously bad attempt at mimicking or emulating other death metal bands (re-read the first sentence). Well, I won’t say that you’re wrong for thinking that on principle, but I will say that “Raging Death” is a fucking solid death metal record if I’ve ever heard one. The Swedes know their shit, ladies and gents.
The things that really hooked me onto this album, at least at first, were the vocals. This album has two vocalists – one doubling as the drummer and the other doubling as the bassist – and their experience in the field of death metal is shown by the power behind their voice. The growls on “Raging Death” are reminiscent of Bodyfarm’s “Malevolence”, I Chaos’ “The Human Repellant”, and even Tormention’s debut, “Hunger for Flesh”. If you haven’t checked out those albums (die) and as a result you don’t know what I’m talking about (die again), what I’m saying is that the vocals on this record are phenomenal. They take the stage and drive the mix, like any good extreme metal vocals should, and the tone at which the vocals are growled is almost as crunchy and death-like as the guitars themselves. Mechanically, they’re made up of low bellows generally reserved for choruses and middle-pitched growls generally reserved for everything else. It sounds fantastic, it meshes with the rest of the album’s groovy nature, and the power behind the vocalists’ voices is unmistakably immense. They’re really a fantastic couple. Maybe they’ll get married or something.
One of the best aspects of “Raging Death” is its simplicity, and that’s directly linked to the guitarwork on the record. As a band, Entrails simply aren’t trying to titillate your high-brow senses of what metal is all about – they’re just grinding your bones to make their bread, and sound good in the process. Yes, that was a Shrek quote, but the point remains: the members of Entrails are giants. In the metal sort of sense, anyways. Take a listen to the song, “Bloodhammer”. Nothing about the guitarwork on that song is spectacular. It doesn’t take technically-proficient virtuosos to compose work akin to such orchestrations. That’s what I’m talking about when I say that simplicity is a key component of “Raging Death”: it’s simply there to get the job done, and it does. That chunky, crunchy guitar tone will stay with your ears until you put the album down, and its well-executed idiot-friendly guitarplay cements the idea that Entrails aren’t attempting to turn the metal world upside down. They just want to make music that kills people, so they did. I respect that, fellas.
Let’s talk drums. Drums are great instruments to use when you feel like beating the shit out of someone, but Entrails’ drummer probably uses real people as components of his kit when practising (and hell, maybe even when recording, but I wouldn’t trust the human sphincter to produce a decent sound when beaten on by big sticks for hours on end). He doesn’t often ascend to crazy BPMs, but Adde (the drummer) knows how to produce a consistent sound. That’s the other beauty of “Raging Death”: consistency! The Swedes produce a solid, consistent, running sound that you can trust to beat the ever-loving shit out of you for as long as you listen to it. This isn’t one of those albums you buy to listen to a few individual songs (looking at you, King of Asgaard) – this is a solid fucking album. The drumming solidifies the mix, boosting it up with the background noise that death metal drummers tend to make with those feet of theirs while simultaneously smashing you in the nose-hole over and over again with a steady beating on the snare. I guess the only thing left for me to say is that “Raging Death”, overall, is fuckin’ awesome. Go buy it or something.
Listen here.
- Information
- Released: 2013
- Label: Metal Blade Records
- Website: Entrails Facebook
- Band
- Jimmy Lundqvist: guitars
- Matte Nilsson: guitars
- Adde Mitroulis: drums, vocals
- Jocke Svensson: bass, vocals
- Tracklist
- 01. In pieces
- 02. Carved to the bone
- 03. Bloodhammer
- 04. Headless dawn
- 05. Cadaverous stench
- 06. Descend to the beyond
- 07. Death league
- 08. Chained and dragged
- 09. Defleshed
- 10. The cemetery horrors
