A jump to a major label is something most bands dream of and with Entrails; I must admit I was rather surprised. However, after producing some great releases in the past I am pretty excited about this album, even though I was worried a bigger label would eventually lead to the natural organic tone being produced…Thankfully, my thoughts were bullshit, but there is slightly less sustain in one or two places. However, this is still as heavy and still as raw as their last album ‘The Tomb Awaits’ based on the songs themselves. A track like ‘Headless Dawn’ sees Entrails as a band clearly developing their own stuff, their creativity cannot be questioned and further delving into tracks like ‘’Carved to the Bone’ will reaffirm this. You will find many references to other bands material, but the arrangements are certainly precise enough for you not to care, you only have to look at the typeface of the band logo to see their major influence now don’t you!
You don’t get technical, you don’t get nicely does it either, it’s dirty, filthy and considering this band were actually around in the heady infantile days of the early 90’s Swedish scene, it is very genuine. Gratification and fulfilment is what you gain both with this effort. You don’t need to analyse this material or invent some pseudo comment to be fitting with the “scene”, you should simply enjoy it. Although it sounds simple and sounds like a walk in the park (at night, in darkness covered in blood obviously!), but let me assure you it is not. Listen underneath the major sounds, there are intricate things occurring here, time changes, riffing style changes and many challenging time signatures. Their sound may not be as raw as Maim for example, but I have always found Entrails to be one of the more musically precise bands out of the recent Swedish scene over the past few years and hopefully they will be able to reach out to a wider audience.
If you want brutal and unrelenting old school death metal, then you want Entrails. ‘Raging Death’ may not have the same impact of earlier releases by this band purely based on audio quality, but it still has the ability to kick you very hard whether you are down or not. There is no nostalgia, there are no studio tricks, this is real and this is ‘Raging Death’. Enjoy!
(8/10 Paul Maddison)
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