DCLXVI: To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth!

The fourth Entombed album reeks of complacency. The band were already legends by this point. Each of their three previous albums had either been good ("Clandestine"), great ("Wolverine Blues"), or epoch-defining ("Left Hand Path"). “To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth!” is bad. It got plenty of press coverage when it came out. Entombed had been absent for a few years and people were eager to hear it. I bought it soon enough to get a special edition deluxe version with a bonus disc (of cover songs). I listened to this album a lot, determined to get my money's worth.

The band nailed the aesthetics here. The packaging was stylish, unique, and brilliant. The artwork captures the band's fondness for old/cult horror films. The special edition version looked particularly good with the band logo embossed on a plain black cover. The production of the music was equally impressive. Tomas Skogsberg had worked with the band for so long that he could give them the perfect sound by this point. The production here is loud, brash and noisy, but has depth aplenty. All the instruments are audible, yet they blend together. The effect is greater than the sum of its parts.

Unfortunately, the songs are mind-numbingly dull. Some of them provide a momentary buzz, but all fade into irrelevance immediately afterwards (if not before). There is variety here; fast songs, slow songs, in-between songs, but the variety comes from unfocused laziness. The band sprayed out ideas in hope that some of those ideas would stick. None of them stick. This is one of those albums without any highlights. Songs like “Wreckage” and "Like This with the Devil" are fun in principle, but not in reality. The album feels like a montage of pseudo rock n' roll looseness, with the band trying too hard to prove their rock credentials. Compare and contrast this album with "Wolverine Blues", where the band captured that rock n' roll energy with tight, consistent song-writing.

Worst of all, "To Ride..." sounds like the work of a tribute band. Entombed must have been listening to lots of Venom, The Stooges and MC5 when they made this. That is fine, they’re all great bands, but no-one wants to hear Entombed parodying them. Compare this record to "Kick Out the Jams" by MC5 (a cover version of the title track appeared on the bonus CD). That MC5 album bristles with energy and unpredictability that Entombed can only dream of at this stage of their career. Entombed are trying to capture that spontaneity but fail miserably. Remember, this is Entombed, a band that once birthed entire sub-genres.

“To Ride…” was the final Entombed record I bought. I don't begrudge the band for making this album. These guys had achieved so much earlier in their career, perhaps they were due a dud. I’m sure Nicke Andersson was ambivalent about this record. He began to take The Hellacopters more seriously from this point on. Perhaps he was eyeing the exit when this came out. Don't make the mistake of listening to this album out of curiosity. It is a pointless, draining experience. Go and listen to "Supershitty to the Max!" or "Kick Out the Jams" instead, or maybe re-visit "Wolverine Blues".

Not one to rest on their laurels during the 90s, To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth see Entombed explore their new-fangled death and roll sound by incorporating a whole lot of stoner rock into the mix. Many of the riffs, in particular, have that unmistakably bluesy inflection to them – this real emphasis on a smooth, rocking groove. Just really get right on into that rock and roll sound, all this while retaining that Swedish chainsaw guitar sound we all know and love Entombed for developing. It’s even evident in how LG Petrov trades in his grittier qualities for extra shouting, although given how much further away from death metal and towards rock this album goes towards, it makes sense.

What also makes sense is featuring the titular song in Tony Hawk’s Underground (the best one in the series, don’t @ me), which is how I first heard of Entombed, and man, it’s quite an introduction! That infectious bouncy groove! Those bluesy flourishes in the accompanying leads! That rocking solo towards the end! LG’s inimitable vocals! Imagine kick flipping, supermanning high in the air, grinding on power lines and showing up Eric Sparrow to this! In a vacuum, this song is goooood fucking times between its upbeat tempo and its catchier-than-AIDS grooves. It gives the impression of a groovier Entombed and, while they’ve certainly written stronger openings like “Left Hand Path” which shows the album of that same name as a force to be reckoned with, this album’s title song gives the impression of some damn fine groovy fun times nonetheless.

But man, there’s a world of difference between the title song and every other song on this album. Dipping in and out between some decent stoner rock cum Entombed joints and borderline fucking jam sessions, the grooves come across not as strongly, nor as overly melodic nor catchy as the title song. “Lights Out”, “Parasight” and “Damn Deal Done” register a pulse as they’re at least enjoyable to listen to, even if they don’t leave too much of a lasting impression. For instance, “Damn Deal Done” has this fucking sick intro riff that’s higher than Cheech and Chong, while “Parasight” puts more pep in its step with a bit more of a visible hardcore influence. Meanwhile, “Wound”, “They” and “Put Me Out” literally pass on by, make some noise and then just end without doing anything. Some basic stoner rock riffs that go nowhere, contributing to songs that just seem half-finished.

Then again, it seems to be a thing with albums that have tons of songs. To Ride stretches itself rather thin across its fourteen tracks with maybe five or six of them being any good while the rest is basically filler. A ripper of an opener, a few cool tracks here and there and a somewhat haunting piano interlude in “DCLXVI” would make for a great follow up to Wolverine Blues if they simply fine-tuned these songs to really pop. Even just on its face, To Ride would make for a pretty good EP. But then there’s eight middling jam session-solunding songs all bordering on bad filler, which would give your skip button a nice little workout if most of them weren’t the last five songs of the album. There was a lot of promise here, but it only pulled through here and there.

Entombed are the originators of that extremely low, evil guitar sound, that became a trademark for Swedish death metal and many bands who also wanted that sound. It was year 1990 when the band's debut album 'Left Hand Path' came out, sending waves for years to come. But Entombed themselves began to include more rock and punk music influences on their third album already, the legendary death 'n' roll platter 'Wolverine Blues'.

It is very hard to get head around the fact, especially now, about 13 and a half years after its release, that 'To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth' is actually Entombed's fourth album. Fourth, 4th, IV, tredje! You see, I am not sure, that this album can be called even death 'n' roll any more. Okay, the negative vibe of death metal can be sensed on the title track, that kicks off the album. The following 'Like This with the Devil' is so bloody rock 'n' roll, albeit still heavy, that it made me fear about how the rest of the album would sound like when I spun it for the first time. 'Lights out' was a small step backwards to nastier bite. With 'Wound', guys wanted to experiment different rhythms, making one weird, but nonetheless a working song. 'They' is more bluesy, quite a lot like some Corrosion Of Conformity from same era (that means 'Deliverance' album that was in the making when this came out). 'Somewhat Peculiar' mixes death and rock in a fine way, making the song both punishing and groovy, and its melody patterns make it so catchy. 'DCLXVI' is an eerie piano interlude (well it equals 666 in Arabic numerals). Thus far the album is definitely more about rock than death metal, no matter how heavy the guitar sound is.

It is sad, that the second half is far worse than the first one, which already is a true opinion-splitter. 'Parasight', with its stupid live crowd sounds, is straight punky rock, and 'Damn Deal Done' is more about blues and okay at that. 'Put Me out' is a perfect title for this song, because it should have been left out: "Beetlejuice horror" infused weird piece is just bad. Simplified punk rock of 'Just a Sad' continues the stream of forgettable songs. 'Blues'... No, I mean 'Boats' is a pedestrian blues song, and definitely one with at least something memorable on it. 'Uffe's Freakshow' is another totally nonsense song in "let's jam" manner. The closer 'Wreckage' was the main attraction of the EP, that preceded the album. It's another jam-out. No thank you.

The best thing about this album is the ripping and heavy guitar tone. It's not as low as on the band's earlier death metal album, but it still is nasty. This is boosted by distorted bass guitar. There are a lot of abrupt-like guitar solos, by the way. Another great thing are the vocals, which are, not surprisingly, more shouty this time around, and also often effected. Still, L-G Petrov rules, as he tortures his throat through these 40 minutes. The production is good with its live vibe. Just turn up the volume and enjoy! Sadly the songs don't really grab me, but only occasionally... The movie poster like cover artwork is really eye-catching.

The drummer Nicke Andersson formed The Hellacopters in 1994 and left Entombed after this album. I really waited Entombed's next one, 'Same Difference' (1998), to be a return towards the band's roots but no, it actually became the band's most full-out rock album. 'To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth' is plagued by too big jamming factor; there simply is no good enough songs to be heard here!

(Originally written for ArchaicMetallurgy.com in 2011)

Setting objective reviewing tastes aside for a second and doing as Entombed request, I shall indeed attempt to "shoot straight and speak the truth" when I say that this album represents a steep drop off in quality from the previous heights of Left Hand Path, Clandestine, and Wolverine Blues. With To Ride..., the wilderness period set in, a period in which some feel the band is still wandering, though I would argue in favor of Uprising marking a sharp ascent out of the morass that is this record and its even more abominable follow-up.

To Ride... finds Entombed heavily emphasizing the "roll" part of death'n'roll and leaving the "death" portion basically dead at the door. Wolverine Blues may have been a sea change in the Entombed sound but at least that record still sounded deathly, dark, and sinister. That sort of muscular atmosphere is basically shorn at the knees here and Entombed trade instead in the generic trappings of generic hard rock with bluesy undertones.

A few tracks stand out and (to no one's surprise) they are the tracks most closely associated to their earlier eras: "Just As Sad," "Parasight," and "Wreckage." The first two hit the crusty thrash notes that were quickly being designated as part of the band's past. Neither of these two can hold a candle to previous offerings though, mainly because the riffs are less interesting and the guitar tones less threatening. "Wreckage" nails the heavy groove in a manner more threatening than the majority of the songs on here -- thanks mainly to a heavier, filthier guitar tone than the other tracks manage to conjure. It has that intoxicating quality I admired so much previously. I also dig the piano interlude, "DCLXVI," and wish the whole album had been more suffused with this kind of melancholy and sinister atmosphere. Nothing else manages to capture the quality of these four tracks (and at best they are just a shade above mediocre to me) and at fourteen songs total, that's a huge problem.

I could illuminate the faults of the remaining ten tracks at length but suffice it to say that they are utterly banal and generic re-treads of previous hard rock and early metal templates. If you'd like to hear Entombed clatter their way through bland recreations of their 70's idols, go ahead and spin the rest of To Ride... but be forewarned, the guitar boogie and surf shuffle on the title track is the just the beginning of Entombed's pandering imitations. If the album didn't say Entombed on it, and feature LGP's distinctive bellows, you'd have a hard time believing it. Entombed are a talented band with many great records, which makes listening to them squander their gifts all the more painful.

Sometimes a great idea can go south pretty quickly, but in the case of To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth, we had to wait about four years for it to go south. Whereas the previous album Wolverine Blues injected more of the band's punk, blues and rock & roll influence successfully into their death metal foundation, this 4th album pretty much leeches all the life and potential out of the hybrid of styles, with about 10-11 entirely boring songs that I can remember skipping over as early as the second listen through the album. Wolverine Blues may have stretched the patience of some fans, who were very disappointed to hear Entombed take a step away from their classic albums Left Hand Path and Clandestine, but at least that was a song built on a promising principle and some fine songwriting, with memorable hooks galore and feeling extremely original for what it was.

To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth lacks all that skilled writing, all of that inspiration, and to be honest, much of the raw energy of its predecessor. So much of this should have just been left on the cutting room floor until it could have been developed into a decent set of songs. I'm not much of a fisherman these days, but I can recall expeditions in my youth in which I'd reel in fish that were simply too small to be considered for dinner. So I'd throw them back in the pond, hoping in a few months or years I'd return for them in their full volume and fighting spirit. Entombed might have done the same with To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth, rather than underwhelm us so after four eager years. This album may not be the equivalent to Metallica's St. Anger level of crushing disappointment, but it certainly qualifies as a Load, or Re-Load. Unfortunately, even at its most aroused state, this album is firing a load of blanks.

The title track feels like an attempt to build some sort of tension for a far more energetic track to follow, but it's really just a hustling, shuffling blues rock rhythm with a few dull boogie downs, even when L-G Petrov howls his angst over the melodic guitars in the bridge, it's still about as exciting getting to your mailbox and finding nothing but spam. "Like This with the Devil" might have saved the album's suffering, but the grooving riff that opens it feels like the same thing any lowbrow nu-metal Ozzfest opener might have performed, and the slightly punk shift to the bridge does nothing for it. "Lights Out" sounds like a track from Wolverine Blues being castrated, with a meaty guitar tone but a lazy chord sequence that does very little, nor does the chorus. "Wound" is a little noisier, like a Melvins take on Entombed, but once more, the very dull writing kills it quickly, and "They" is very high on the rock and roll and low on the memorable scale. "Somewhat Peculiar" might have been the first song on the album I never felt I really had to skip, with huge grungy bends and a half decent bridge melody on the guitar, but I probably wouldn't include it on an Entombed mix tape even if I had to choose songs from every album.

The piano piece "DCLXVI" serves as an intermission, and surprisingly it is one of the better composed pieces of music on the album, which would have been served wisely as the intro with a truly ass kicking song to follow. Here it's in the middle, and followed by "Parasight", which is another of the album's better tracks, especially when it builds up the crazy ass chorus around :45, but still choked with a throwaway riff or two. "Damn Deal Done" is like your feel good, hillbilly stoner rock meets grunge, with a riff inspired by the usual suspects (Zeppelin, Sabbath, Hendrix, etc), which sadly remains interesting for about as long as it takes for you to reach the SKIP button on your CD player. "Put Me Out" has a pretty cool Uncle Fester rockabilly, creepy vocal intro, infused with freakish laughter that sounds like the band might be about to bust out "The Monster Mash", but once the novelty ends, so does the interest level.

"Just as Sad" would almost be good, only the band have done far better songs of this nature on the previous Wolverine Blues (like "Eyemaster") or the Hollowman EP ("Serpent Speech"). "Boats" has a kinda cool blues swagger to it, like a Danzig/Melvins hybrid, but after the wah spin to the original hook, nothing exciting manifests. "Uffe's Horroshow" is a turbulent jammer with a few vocals, but simply serves as a minute or so of undeveloped potenial, bruising rhythms and howling. Interestingly, the song "Wreckage" is the final cut on the album, after seeing an EP release earlier alongside some cover tracks. I'd have to say it's the best song on this whole album, with a pissed off, filthy punch to the guitars and a nice little guitar fill in the chorus. But considering what it has here to compete with...that's just not saying much.

I guess if you'd had your fingers crossed that Entombed would move into an even more punkish blues rock direction post-Wolverine Blues, you might have found yourself briefly amused by this album, but it arrived and departed, nobody really cared, and people at their live gigs were still craving to old school butchery of their first two full-lengths. But clearly, judging by the album to follow, Entombed had yet to fully wash the mediocrity out of their systems. My opinions on this album may closely resemble the flat-lining signal on a heart monitor, but at least it's not Same Difference.

Highlights: Parasight, Wreckage

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

I strongly recommend to put aside all of those swedish-death-metal-defenders who claim that Entombed was over after Clandestine (or, in the best of cases, after Wolverine Blues). To Ride, Shoot Straight And Speak The Truth will prove them wrong any day of the week. After all, fashions change with time and no one can expect a creative band like Entombed to stay stuck between the boundaries of the death-metal genre. They threw them away with Wolverine Blues and, IMHO, they reached their creative peak here, with this one. They polished their sound of all the excesses and steered towards an easier, more linear songwriting that could finally make this unique death'n'roll style not only fun to listen to but also fun to play.

It's unfair, I think, to speak of this album as a collection of tracks (although it is, indeed), as the feeling I had upon listening to it (and reading the amazing lyrics) was that what I had in my hands is a whole document, a pulp-ish statement of Entombed's love for fiction, b-movies, strip-comics and rock'n'roll! Like they want you to know that they're ready to stop taking themselves and the whole metal-scene too seriously and they invite you to do the same.

No pretentious instrumental virtuosisms here, no hi-fi productions nor the hated summer-hit... only pure fun, heaviness and a whole lot of portentuous growls, just to remind us what playing heavy music is all about in the first place! A kick in the head from start to finish! It's absolutely impossible not to start headbanging as soon as the devastating groove of the opener\title-track breaks in; it's impossible not start air-guitaring while the ferocious riff of Like This With The Devil unfolds, or to want to growl along the verses and chorus of Lights Out (my favourite track of the whole lot!). A feeling of submissive participation will ride by your side throughout the whole record to the sonic assault of Wreckage, you will get to the end of it without noticing that 14 songs had passed and asking for more!

Strongly recommended for open-minded, easy-going, visionary, fiction-loving metal-heads (like myself)!

A newbie to death metal is listening to his uncle's cassette collection. He listens avidly to the famous Entombed, co-creators of the "swedish" sound. Upon listening to their third full-length, the following words come to his mind: "What the fuck?"

Entombed's pioneering death 'n' roll era began with the Hollowman ep and Wolverine Blues. In this, their fourth full-length, they continued down the 'roll road. The first thing to be noticed is on this release is the lighthearted approach to songwriting: no "Heavens Die" or "Full of Hell" on this record. The songs are generally shorter than on Wolverine Blues, and the compositions are less malevolent. This album is to Wolverine Blues what WASP's Helldorado was to KFD: a fun follow-up (quality comparisons aside, as this record stands up much better to "...Blues" than Helldorado did to KFD). The production remains pretty much the same, with the trademark chainsaw guitars and L-G Petrov's growly shouts at the forefront, but all the instruments can be heard clearly, even Jorgen Sandstrom's bass.

The album starts out strongly with "To Ride, Shoot Straight And Speak The Truth", a catchy midpaced rollicking tune distinguished by the drumming that reminds one of Black Sabbath's "Children of the Grave". "Like This With The Devil" follows with a strong, fast pace, and honestly reminds me of Metallica's "Through the Never", a bit shorter and compacted for rocking out. "Lights Out" breaks the pace with a boring tread and a stupid chorus (It's the devils night out, do you dare? There ain't no hide out/they've turned the lights out do you hear?" Yes I hear when lights are turned off). It has an interesting solo section but otherwise... no. "Wound" is a fast-paced one, not horrible but frankly unmemorable. "They" is a midpaced song that has a main riff that sounds kind of stoner in a DOWN way but doesn't do much. "Somewhat Peculiar" is a throwaway slow song with some dumb samples audible in the background. "DCLXVI" is just piano. "Parasight" has "screaming girls in a Beatles concert" sounds which are stupid but on the whole don't take away from a cool, fast rock song. "Damn Deal Done" follows with a mostly sluggish pace that picks up midsong and returns to the main midpaced riff for a track not wholly unenjoyable. "Put me out", another slow-paced song, starts with a weird spoken word approach and has lots of feedback guitar throughout: filler, in my humble opinion, as it lasts only 2:23 and the song is not allowed to develop. "Just as Sad" is basically "Parasight" 2, enjoyable in a fast-paced rocking way. "Boats" is a slow rock song that would be better if Kiss had written it and played it in double time. "Uffe's Horrorshow" is another fast rocker, with only background vocals, but it's not really a song, more like an interlude at 1:18. "Wreckage" ends the album on a fast pace, and is mainly reminiscent of "Like This With The Devil", except for the feedback interlude; all in all a good song.

While devoid of the depressive tone and more aggressive attitude found in Wolverine Blues, To Ride... is not without its faults but stands on its own two feet as a good example of death ' n' roll.

What's with all these Swedish bands trying to get the most painful sound as possible out of their guitars? More often than not they resemble blenders and totally kill the listening experience. Well, if you thought Dismember's Death Metal was bad, To Ride Straight... will do much of the same... leave you with a splitting headache.

I downloaded this expecting something along the line of Wolverine Blues... and eh, I suppose there are some traces of the style played on WB, but with a hollow, hardcore approach that forsakes many of the grooves that made WB so badass. Still death'n'roll, but more death than roll, if that makes any sense at all. Songs like "Like This With the Devil" and "Wound" are cool, but not really inspired.

LG's voice is still raw as a frozen ham, one of the only things that I dig about To Ride Straight.. is his voice. Asides from that, a pretty lame album. Wolverine Blues and Morning Star are way better.