Reborn

Swedish up-and-comers Entrails have a logo that looks like a mix between the classic logos of two classic Swedish death metal bands: Entombed and Nihilist. Why that matters? Well, Entrails sound like them. Both. Entrails was formed as early as 1991, but never got around to record anything and was put on hold. A decade and a half later, main felon Bloodspill started fiddling around with his old tunes written back in the day and decided to record them, with a guest growler to satisfy the songs’ gory needs. We should all thank him for going through the pains of the studio after all these years, ‘cause those songs are what we have here, and “Reborn” is a killer demo!

These eleven songs consist of pure quality Swedish death metal of the no-nonsense kind. Dismember seems to be at least as big an influence as the aforementioned band/bands, and the melodic riffing tastes mighty fine actually. Evil and mean but still harmonic and catchy, especially the fifth track “Voices” has a big “Hit warning!” stamp affixed on its gory, slimy forehead. The middle section and solo in “Midnight Death” also provide the sweetest kind of melodic break from the meaty pounding we're served as the main course.

All the instruments are played with conviction, and the band mostly keep things simple enough so everybody can keep up with what’s going on. The vocalist has a deep, manly growl and sounds like his voice echoes from beyond the grave, in a good way. You gotta find yourself a drummer, though – they’re programmed fine and all that, but this kind of death metal needs the organic quality a human drummer brings to the table.

All in all, great dark atmosphere and catchy riffs that sound like authentic early 90’s material. I guess they’re not bullshitting us regarding the point in time in which these songs were written. Had this demo been released back then in the early 90’s, Entrails would surely have been a band to reckon with, even in the horribly flooded Swedish death metal scene. Today, with all this having been done before, they’re probably not going to raise many eyebrows; which is sad ‘cause this band had – and has – potential. I'm glad they got noticed by F.D.A. Records and got to release their shit for a wider audience, as “Reborn” certainly is ear candy for us fans of good ole cadaver slabbing.

I’m not a complete old school fanatic, it actually takes quite a lot to impress me. There are some bands that I absolutely love, but far from every act rearing its ugly face, claiming to be old school. But Entrails’ roots go back to 1990, when the main man Jimmy started to write songs. Nothing was ever released, but for some reason or another he felt his old songs deserved to be heard, so almost twenty years later we now have the "Reborn" demo.

There’s no question this is old school death metal, and there’s no question this is Swedish. But while you can draw resemblances to acts like Dismember, Grave and Entombed (which people seem to do whenever dealing with Swedish-sounding old school death metal) it’s not entirely fair. There are a few big hints towards old school thrash, like for instance in "Stormy death". And at times I feel some Unleashed vibes as well, in that particular chugging tempo. But the track that really stands out is "Depression", just for the wicked riffing and killer doom atmosphere. It’s like if Worship or Mournful Congregation decided to go old school death metal. The result is a fantastic tune.

The music sounds very based around the slick guitar lines, and there are tons of them. No matter the tempo the guitars have cool riffs to deliver, and plenty of headbanger friendly moments occur throughout this quite hefty demo (considering it’s 48 minutes long). This is really what you’d expect from a top-notch band of the style. Along with the quite monstrous growls it certainly delivers the goods.

What is unfortunate is that it doesn’t really speak to me. I’ve never been seriously into either Dismember nor Grave, so I’m having a bit of a hard time really getting into Entrails as well. And one thing that bothers me is definitely the sound. It’s all recorded in Jimmy’s own homestudio, so maybe I shouldn’t expect too much, but the guitar sound is really stale. And the drum machine also makes it sound a little flat. I’ve certainly heard way worse in drum programming, this is actually quite well done, but it still doesn’t let the music come alive and overwhelm you. However, trust me; if you’re a rabid fan of Swedish old school death metal you’ll go apeshit over this.

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net