Uprising

Entombed have been around for a long time. They have been alternately lauded and derided. None of this seems to matter to them though. Seeing them in concert, they belt out their songs with a jovial sense of enjoyment that transcends metal opinions. Entombed clearly don't give a fuck what anybody else thinks of them. And that is to their advantage. While I do think that both "Clandestine" and "Left Hand Path" are classics, I take issue with anyone who says that Entombed has offered up nothing great since. "Uprising" is a clear example of Entombed kicking out an awesome jam with no consideration for angry fanboy sentiments. Slavish devotion to one's past breeds stagnation and indignity, Entombed have avoided this curse fairly well, making some excellent records along the way. "Uprising" is a nice rebound from the failed experimentation of "Same Difference" as everyone, even the band, agrees they stumbled with that one.

"Uprising" is a reinvigorated death'n'roll record, hurtling forth like an unrestrained freight train. Purposefully under-recorded, it somehow restores the band's sound to an almost Wolverine Blues level heaviness. This simple, four-track approach works because Entombed has always been raw. Glossier productions have often tempered their ferocity. If anything, the production on this reminds me of Unsane, in that it is intensely loud, super-noisy, super-heavy, and stripped way down. There is also a chaotic blues element on this record that hits Unsane's Amrep notes without being derivative. There has always seemed to be a mutual appreciation between them and the influence helps direct Entombed's ambition.

As for the songs themselves, 'Seeing Red' is the perfect opener. It has an almost 70s rock vibe yet retains the balls-crushing intensity. It settles into a nice mid-tempo groove and just kills. Lars voice is so dominant here and throughout the album. He has a near-perfect metal voice, finding the halfway between a hoarse shout and death grunt. 'Say It In Slugs' has a big-ass stoner riff throughout, sounding like Kyuss would if they'd had the courage to really unleash. I defy anyone to listen to this song without wanting to bang your head. The riff is so damn infectious! Entombed wear their crust influences on 'Won't Back Down,' sounding like an amped-up Discharge filtered through the blues. It's a fucked up sound, totally unexpected, but it works. The highlight, however, absolutely lays in their masterful interpretation of Dead Horse's 'Scottish Hell.' Here they take an already classic song and turn it into something completely their own. It's morose to the point of melancholy, memorable to the point where it has been indelibly ingrained in my brain. I don't think there is a weak track on here. The songwriting is remarkably consistent. There may not be an ultimate death-rock like 'Demon' or 'Eyemaster' but there is no filler either. "Uprising" is one of Entombed's better post-death metal records.

After the nebulous void that was Entombed in 1994-1999, it was time for a swift boot to the ass, an album to kick start the band back towards the positive, creative direction they were beginning to unravel with their 3rd album Wolverine Blues, and though it's hardly perfect, Uprising was such an event. For all intensive purposes, this should have been the album they released in place of To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth in 1997, an effort that both capitalizes on the band's rock & roll evolution and hands out a spanking on almost every track, while conscious that this, after all, a METAL band, not some dull ass alternative stoner rock affair that lost its soul in all the miasma of the misdirected 90s. The tone is actually not all that different from their 'official' fourth album To Ride..., it has the same dirty punk rock luster, only this time the energy of their youth is in fine form, and the band offers 43 minutes of driving punishment that is worthy of cruising (or speeding) around in your car, hunting for cheap liquor or suicide.

The simple aesthetic of the cover seems almost profound, the icon of a band who wishes to strip away all the mistakes and mediocrity of their downturn and get back to basics, what truly matters: the rock. And as the jangling guitars herald the epoch of "Seeing Red", you can instantly hear a re-invigoration which reaches down deep into the testicles and summons forth all the anger and reproach that characterized Left Hand Path, dowsed in a more primal coating of the band's punk rock influence. There are no amazing riffs here, in fact it's a pretty simple tune, but it's compelling enough to get the dry tongue once again salivating for what might come next, and that's the forceful rocker "Say It In Slugs", which honors its killer title with a confident mid pace that reeks of a recent fist fucking (your choice of orifice). "Won't Back Down" is a little brighter and groovier, but follows a pretty similar pattern, with a nice bass injection into raucous hardcore punk. Again, no riffs here that you'll freak out over, but it doesn't require them, its a mindless deposit of energy waiting to piggyback your ride from a highway pit stop. "Insanity's Contagious" is a darker trip to the bottom of the bottle, its neanderthal riffing loud and proud while L-G Petrov splatters his gut-wrenching meditations across the backside of the guitars.

"Something Out of Nothing" casts a Slayer shadow with the thrash descent of its intro, but quickly moves towards a barroom brawl, cowbells crashing and huge tones that squeal in a perfect marriage of rock and metal, compounded by the great, effortless chug-a-long thrashing of the bridge at around 1:45. The cover of Dead Horse's "Scottish Hell" is included as part of this album, a morose piece of depressive rock which feels only natural in the hands of Entombed (it's one of the better covers on their Sons of Satan Praise the Lord compilation of 2002), and "Time Out" kicks in with a strong, curious thrash rhythm that is soon branded by straight up, dirty hardcore rock. The groove that erupts in the middle of this track is superb, very much something they would have incorporated on a Wolverine Blues track. "The Itch" is perhaps the one song on Uprising which closely echoes the band's work on their previous albums, opening with a very Zeppelin bounce (like something Rage Against the Machine might pull), but at least it's not bad, and the consistent guitar tone identifies well with the remainder of the tracks.

"Year In Year Out" weaves a classic, dour Entombed melody through a post punk environment, a brisk and catchy track which helps to steer the album back into the drag race which it started, and "Returning to Madness" is perhaps the most brooding piece on the record, slow but assured as the cruel guitar rhythm gives momentum to Petrov's working man lyrics and howled vocals. When the mutes become chords, the power is enough to rattle your spine, and the break into the thick, oozing bass with the vocals at 1:50 is fantastic. "Come Clean" is another pure roadster, punk engine with screaming little leads and an old school, blues boogie which ascends to its head banging riot chorus. "In the Flesh" is the finale of the core album, a lament sparked through a pair of dueling organs that create a horrific landscape, over which the chords slowly creep forth, the organ melody transforming into a guitar, and a clear Sabbath influence pouring through. It's dark, vile and sufficiently memorable.

Of course, since I've got the North American CD release of this album, it doesn't end here. There are three bonus tracks with varying degrees of quality. "Superior" has a driving drum and start/stop to its rhythms which reminds me of something Helmet might write. Though the ringing guitars and thick bass sound good and dense together, the song is rather a bore, and I can see why it wouldn't be included as an official album track. "The Only Ones" has another thick mudslide of bass guitar which rolls into a violent, bluesy shuffle, and though I like the way the guitars carouse through the tune like drunken serpents, there isn't much payoff. "Words" is perhaps the strongest of the bonus content, but it's not a far cry from songs we've already heard on Uprising, kind of a mix of "Seeing Red" and "Something Out of Nothing".

With 15 tracks of general good quality and lowdown, dirty attitude, Uprising is a huge improvement over its direct predecessor, Same Difference, which was itself really bad. This is the album Entombed NEEDED to put out at this point in their career, and though its not the stuff of which a Left Hand Path or Clandestine was born, it's an acceptable expression of the band's many influences. The lyrics aren't very good, but they do represent the personal, blue collar aesthetic the band was touting. Very few of the tracks would qualify if I were to assemble a 'best of' Entombed mix, but they are consistent and the record is a blast to listen straight through on a sunny, dusty weekend road trip. It's also an early indicator of the band's gradual return to their roots, but this is better exemplified by the follow-up, Morning Star.

Highlights: Say it in Slugs, Something Out of Nothing, Time Out, Returning to Madness

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

The metal scene treats the word 'rock' like one of the harshest of curses. I can't think of the number of times I've heard a metalhead dismiss a band with a wave of the hand, and that damnation that so many fear: 'rock-like'. Dozens of bands that would achieve more respect than they otherwise do are permanently handicapped by their incorporation of rock influence, or metalheads lament the fact that the influence of rock music prevents them from reaching true artistry. Indeed, much of the most lauded heavy metal is that which strays furthest away from the 'rock' mold, despite how similar early examples of metal are to that much benighted genre.

It makes sense, in a way. The vast majority of metalheads came to this breed of music from rock or its bastard child nu metal, and, as loathe as I am to use this argument, there is a certain trendiness in 'biting the hand that feeds you'; going back to disrespect the rock music that brought you into heavy metal. A great deal of metalheads see metal as the 'evolved' form of rock music, the natural evolutionary successor to that genre, superior in musicianship, aesthetic, ideology, and overall artistic impact. In some ways, this makes sense, but seems to be more a factor of community than genre itself: metal is a genre much more tied together through a unified community than all the strains of rock music are, united merely by a vague commonality in instrumentation, and at once having to deal with being one of if not the most popular 'genre' of music on the face of the earth. Such scrutiny tends to wear on the legitimacy of any form or structure.

The longer I've been in metal, the less disdain for rock music I've come to feel. I came into metal from, like many my age, nu metal, and I quickly fell into forsaking it along with most other metalheads. I still do; nu metal is, by and large, complete shit, and I'm glad that I escaped its trappings. But unlike rock, nu metal is a genre small enough to dismiss with a somewhat general sweep of the hand. Rock music is a much larger, more complex beast indeed. And so, in retrospect, I realized that many rock bands possessed thoughts, feelings, and musical elements that metal either did not offer or did not ever attempt to offer the listener. Thus, I still look upon the genre with some of the love I've always had for it; while I'd say my kinship is most certainly to the metal scene first and foremost, I'll always have some soft spot in my heart for rock music, for the Volvo that got me to the promised land, as it were: not without kinks, but it drove hard and it drove well for a long time, and for that alone, it deserves its due.

I picked up Entombed's 'Uprising' at a used record store on a whim fairly early in my metal-listening career, recognizing the name as a heavy metal band. Upon playing it at home, I was deeply surprised to, instead of metal, hear a particularly abrasive, raw, and heavy form of rock music instead. I definitely liked it, that much was sure: there seemed to be something more 'real' about this rock music than what was heard on the radio, something more emotionally resonant and, in some way, more metallic than what one would hear ordinarily. But really, my appreciation for it never quite moved beyond an aesthetic level: it was a pleasing listen, but I'd moved on to bigger, better, and more complex things in the meantime. It's only in recent time, after numerous plays, have I begun to really grasp what separates Entombed from most rock music, what unifies it with heavy metal, and what makes it a truly great album in the field of both genres.

In short, 'Uprising' is the combination of metal's ideology and passion with rock music's rawness of emotion and basic musical template. What we have is quite possibly the perfect bridge between the two genres, taking parts of each but existing comfortably in neither. 'Uprising' is too heavy, brutal, and noncommercial for rock music; 'Uprising' is too emotionally naked, musically humble, and earnestly blue-collar for heavy metal. It's a record of massive alienation and discontent, thus representing both genres, and one of the attempt to reconcile ones' neuroses and ambitions with reality, representing neither. Frustrating? Yes. It's an album that's ABOUT frustration, and insanity, and depression, an and a level of hopeless loss and confusion that any grunge or suicidal black metal band could hope to emulate in absolute honesty and purity of delivery.

The delivery is of abrasive, fulminating rock music with the barest tinge of metal's sonic brutality and heaviness. Entombed on this album are a great deal more aggressive than the average rock band, and hell, for the average metal band as well. No percussive acrobatics are necessary: the album is devoid of tremolo picking, double bass, blast beats or death growls. This is merely the basic elements of rock music (distorted guitars, power chords, simple beats and fills, shouted vocals) overdriven and brought to the end of their ropes by fury and determination. And yet it manages to be more intense than a great number of death or black metal bands by virtue of its honesty, not its speed or technicality. Riffs occasionally have an element of groove (the beginning of 'The Itch'), but typically just barrel forward with pure rock fury (opener 'Seeing Red'), handfuls of power chords and the occasional AC/DC-style fill to hold them together.

I remember an infinite number more riffs off 'Uprising' than I do off any Deathspell Omega record.

Leads are bluesy and packed with emotion without letting up on the aggression and fury. Musically, Motörhead is by far the largest influence, present in the pounding, crashing drumming of Peter Stjärnvind. But what makes Entombed so powerful on this record is L-G Petrov's vocal delivery and lyrics, elements that would never be such a crucial part of a heavy metal album. Petrov's voice is a roaring, massively powerful shout that conveys a thousand percent more conviction than most shrieks or growls. His voice is monotonous and abrasive, never quite backing down from its intensity; the voice of a man too accustomed to being betrayed to ever let down his guard fully. Lyrically, 'Uprising' is beyond strong, though deceivingly simplistic. The concepts are simply and universal, and these ranges from pure aggression and determination ('I'm seeing red/It helps me set things straight/I'm doing everything/For the purpose of improvement'), confusion and loss in a world where one feels alone, with lines simply collapsing like one into bed after a day's backbreaking labor ('I'm tired of hating/And feeling down/My ears they're bleeding/And I'm getting old') and every shade of grey in between. And yet the very most powerful track here is the band's cover of Dead Horse's 'Scottish Hell', which manages to convey a level of nihilism and agony far beyond that of most heavy metal bands.

This is an album that requires a great deal of time and a great deal of humility to understand. All preconceived notions must be shed, all pretenses and prejudices against 'rock music', and this album must be taken for exactly what it is, nothing more, nothing less than the story of what it is to be a man in today's world. This is the very definition of catharsis, emotion, and passion, and to dismiss it because of the tools it is crafted with are of a different breed is idiocy. 'Uprising': the heroic music that need show no examples of its bravery to those who would not understand.