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Old Man Metal

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Formed from the ashes of the pioneering Swedish death metal band Nihilist in 1989, and universally considered to be one of the Big Four Of Swedish Death Metal, the influence of Entombed on that scene cannot be overstated. Their first full-length album, 1990's Left Hand Path, was the second LP ever recorded at Sunlight Studio (Carnage's Dark Recollections being the first); Sunlight is renowned as the original source of the distinctive "old-school Swedeath sound:" a full-bodied, buzzsaw guitar tone; lively, dirty-ish, big production; and a robust low end, with the whole thing drenched in reverb.

Entombed built the mold musically as well as sonically, employing a number of what would become identifiable characteristics of death metal made at that place and time: propulsive percussion that relies heavily on fast double-bass and fast and mid-tempo hardcore d-beats, and minimally on blastbeats; vocals that use a fairly dry, intelligible gruff/guttural shout (midway between American death metal and hardcore); blitzkrieg-speed tremolo-picked riffing offset by mid-paced skeleton riffs with lots of ringing notes, mid-paced chuggy thrash and hardcore riffs, and subdued thematic leadwork that lives in the back of the mix. They also utilized simpler traditional metal structures that you'd not likely see in American death metal from the same era. Their second LP, 1991's Clandestine, was more of the same, cementing their place in the cosmology of death metal.

As was the case for a lot of metal bands in the early nineties, Entombed would go through a stylistic change; future albums would show a heavy rock influence, what has come to be known as "death'n'roll," and Entombed would never completely return to their original style (or at least haven't yet). Left Hand Path and Clandestine remain as foundational pillars of a style that is still played by others to this day.

A portion of the original band (lead guitarist Alex Hellid, guitarist Uffe Cederlund and drummer Nicke Andersson), plus Robert Andersson on vocals and Edvin Aftonfalk on bass, collectively still active under the name Entombed, performed the entire Clandestine album live, for the first time, on November 12th, 2016, the album's 25th anniversary. Recorded at Malmö Live in Malmö, Sweden, this live set is one disc of a two-disc set to be released by Threeman Recordings on May 17th. The other disc is an orchestral arrangement of the album by Thomas Von Wachenfeldt, performed by the Malmö Symphony Orchestra And Choir.

Collectively known as Clandestine - Live, the upcoming release will be available on both CD and 180-gram vinyl, both with and without a commemorative t-shirt. This should definitely be worth checking out.

Order here.
 
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