As a music lover I’m always in two minds about ‘demo collections’.
They fall into two categories generally,
1. Interesting curios from the formative years of bands that went on to be massive…(Mantas ‘Death By Metal’)
2. Unlistenable, badly recorded shite released, probably as a bit of a cash in for rabid completists (Darkthrone I’m looking at you with your ‘Frostland Tapes’ & ‘Sempiternal Past’).
Very rarely would you say that a ‘demo collection’ is essential listening. However, this demo collection by old school Swedish deathsters Entrails, well, is pretty fucking essential!
I love Entrails. I think their 3rd album, last years Metal Blade debut ‘Raging Death’ is one of THE best Swedish death metal albums full stop. Groove, riffs, heaviness – everything you (well, I) want in a death metal album. So I had quite an open mind when I played this.
This collection comprises Entrails two 2009 demos ‘Reborn’ (tracks 1-11) & ‘Human Decay’ (tracks 12-18). Most of the tracks, certainly from ‘Reborn’ wound up being released on the bands 2010 debut ‘Tales From The Morgue’ & a couple on 2011’s ‘The Tomb Awaits’ . The demos were only pressed in extremely limited quantities and no doubt sold out faster than David Vincent can order a Malibu & coke so this is the first and only chance many of us will have to own & hear them.
Line up wise, on both demos Jimmy Lunqvist takes care of guitars, bass & drums while Jocke Svenson handles the vocals. Both demos open with spooky atmospheric intros before blasting off into the Swedeath stratosphere in a flurry of Boss HM guitars. All the songs are unmistakeably Entrails, hinting at the unrelenting death groove assault that would follow a few short years later. Of the two demos, the earlier one, ‘Reborn’ has the fatter sound and probably better songs – ‘Triumph Of The Sinners’ is as epic as it gets, but ‘Human Decay’ closes with a tasty Dismember cover (Casket Garden) given the Entrails treatment and sounding a heavier and dirtier than the original.
Is it an essential purchase? Well if, like me, you love that old school Stockholm sound (bands like Entrails, Facebreaker, Miasmal & Smothered are without doubt the future of this particular genre and deserve all your love), and you’re not lucky enough to own the original demos then hell yeah. If you’re more a casual listener, and don’t have it, then get on ‘Raging Death’ right now and see what you’re missing…..then get this.
(7.5/10 Mark Eve)
Leave a Reply