Entombed - Uprising
I am a huge fan of this band’s first two albums, Left Hand Path and Clandestine, but I’d felt that they started to go downhill afterward, with Wolverine Blues and much more so with the White Zombie-ish To Ride, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth. So disappointed was I, that I didn’t even pick up their next album, Same Difference. I’d pretty much given up on them. And then at this last Milwaukee Metalfest (2000), I found myself staying at the same hotel as Entombed. I’ve interviewed the band in the past, but the lineup is almost entirely different now, so I hadn’t spoken to any of them before, and when we (I was with the bad motherfucker, Jack Botos) saw them in the lobby, I was a little apprehensive about running up to say hi. I really shouldn’t have been, since they came right over and started passing introductions around. Turns out that Entombed (and their road crew) are probably the coolest guys on the planet. The next day at the ‘fest, they even dedicated a song (“Evilyn”) to us. At that time, this new album, Uprising, had not yet been released in the USA, but I’d heard that it was a sort of return to form. I didn’t exactly get that impression from the new songs live, but I also couldn’t be sure exactly which ones were from this album, and what might have been from the (still) unheard Same Difference. But they did play a couple I’d never heard before that I liked, so I was pleasantly surprised when I found this in my PO box these months later. While in no way a return to the Death Metal perfection of their first two albums, Uprising is pretty cool in it’s own way. And the US version has three bonus tracks, available nowhere else. Take that Europe and Japan! Now you know what it’s like. Anyway, there are some nods to the past here, such as what was the final track (before the bonus cuts were added), “In the Flesh,” which is almost like “Left Hand Path” part 2. But mostly, this seems to be based more around a Crust model, than a Metal one, which is cool, and brings back a lot more intensity than I remember Entombed having in the last several years. It also allows L.G. to scream in a different, non-Death Metal way that really suits his voice much better currently. Okay, this isn’t exactly flawless, and the bonus tracks sound kind of thrown-together, but there are moments of greatness here, and like I said, these guys are the coolest, so I’d have to recommend that old fans who may have given up on Entombed check this out. And I’m going to track down a copy of Same Difference just to hear what I’ve missed.
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