After working an unconscionable number of hours this weekend* I’m feeling tired and a bit numb with the upcoming working week looming over my shoulder. So I decided to get heavy.
Throwing Entombed Wolverine Blues onto the Deck of Doom was a good choice it turns out. Pulverisingly heavy, but not as chainsaw-in-your-cochlea heavy as their first two LPs**. In point of fact by adding a real groove to the drums and de-cookiemonstering the vocals Entombed invented a whole new genre on Wolverine Blues, death ‘n roll. It’s bloody great.
Being a wussy wusserton, currently residing in Wusserton-On-Sea on a year’s sabbatical from teaching a degree course in Applied Wussery at the University of Wussershire, I do need something like a groovy beat and (occasionally) legible vocals to cling to even in my heaviest modes. I know, I know, but its just the way Crom made me.
I have no idea if the late Lars-Göran Petrov, lead throatcalist, was a vast shaggy bearlike behemoth of a man but he certainly sounds like it here^. The way his vocals power opener ‘Eyemaster’ is an, umm, eyeopener, the rhythm section falling in behind him to power the chorus while guitarists Alex Hellid and Uffe Cederlund^* grind it out then light out the the horizon is really impressive stuff.
I love the forked lightning complexity of ‘Rotten Soil’ as much as I love the song’s title. The sheer brute power of the title track really is something to behold, it could pull a 747 with its teeth, easy. Incidentally despite one edition of the LP cover featuring the Marvel hero, as did the video, its about the wild animal not Hugh thingy.
I’ll spare you the full track-by-track but I’ll pull you a few bloody, squirming cuts from the wolverine’s lair as a favour:
Demon – the slowest grooviest cut here, really showing Nicke Andersson and bassist Lars Rosenberg’s skills to the max. It’s wondrously heavy and the best cut here for me.
Contempt – benefits from a brilliant old-school heavy metal into.
Hollowman – heavy like a mountain range, but tunefuller. Andersson’s drumming is immense here and LG Petrov sells every syllable. There are even shades of Alice In Chains lurking in the melody.
Earache Records negotiating a tie-in with Marvel’s Wolverine was a mismatch in my opinion, Wolverine Blues doesn’t slice and dice, it pummels and pulverizes. The sheer heft of channelling all that heaviness through the medium of the groove is startling, it is one of those wonderful rare LPs that shook stuff up enough to change everything around it.
It may not cure the working week, but it certainly helps.
There's no turning back
Your infected blood will boil
'Cause you walked on rotten soil
My copy of Wolverine Blues is a fancy pants 2017 reissue on silver vinyl limited to 500 copies. Which is all very fab and collector-y but the real clincher is that it is one of Earache Records excellent Full Dynamic Range releases and it really does sound fantastic. Special bonus: it appears to be available cheaper now than when I bought it 7 years ago, let me just stress HOW happy I am for you all about that. HOW very very happy I am about that FFS.
Always thought it could do with better cover art though.
1247 Down.
*#capitalistlapdogwageslaveovertime.
**I own and dig Left Hand Path, heavy gurus do I need Clandestine too? or is it more of the same? answers on postcards to the usual PO Box number please.
^I really love the fact that he had to leave a previous band after making what Wikipedia refers to as ‘an ill-advised pass’ at the drummer’s girlfriend. I mean, I have made the occasional alcohol-fuelled bad romantic decision in my time but, as yet, none have been immortalised on internet’s primary source of information!^^
^^an even better fact is that it was Nicke Andersson’s girlfriend, drummer of Entombed, who I am guessing must have found it in his heart to forgive him.
^*not to be confused with the death metal furniture shop Uffe Cedarland. True story.
Thanks for the introduction, this was my first experience of Entombed and it was a good one.
Really pleased you liked them. The earlier LPs are great but more straight-forward death metal.
Brilliant write up, “Rotten Soil” is awesome, I rather love “Full of Hell” too. Being from the nearby parish of Softasshite, I like groove with my death too, and this is the only Entombed I own. “True” deathsters will tell you Entombed sold out with this and Clandestine is best, “proper Entombed, mate, not that rock n’ roll shit.” It is very very brutal, but catchy? Err, no.
In the book Choosing Death, Nicke Andersson says the title track was inspired by a James Ellroy story about a wolverine-obsessed serial killer, and the Marvel stuff was imposed on them by Columbia, their US label, to no-one’s satisfaction. The book posits this as further evidence the Columbia deal ruined the careers of Earache’s finest – Entombed, Carcass and Napalm Death.
Thank you as always Tim. I wondered if you’d know this big bad beastie. What pair of wussy AOR fans we are with our penchant for melodies etc.
I don’t know Choosing Death, I like Nicke Andersson for his work in Hellacopters too, whom I love. My only reading matter in a related field was Lords of Chaos, which is a whole different ballgame. Is Choosing Death worth picking up?
Must read Lords of Chaos – same publisher, Feral House, I think. They also published American Hardcore – A Tribal History, which is a brilliant read.
Choosing Death is good, especially if you want a really well researched history of who influenced who, who released what when, the line-up changes, and the labels. The chapters on the Earache-Columbia deal are really illuminating, and he picks out some of the more colourful facts, like how Cannibal Corpse ended up in Ace Ventura – Pet Detective or where Carcass got their medical inspiration from. Where it’s less strong I felt was in getting to the motivation and personality of the bands, you come away not much wiser as to why, say, Morbid Angel were driven to play what they play. And it doesn’t delve much into the reaction of the wider world either. But on balance a good read.
He also sees grindcore and death metal as the same thing – discuss!! And show your working.
Looks scary!
Sounds it too in places!
I did listen, Joe.
I have decided to stick with Music For Airports for now.
But Entombed will be top of my list if I ever want to induce the effect of earth-moving equipment inside my skull. And I do appreciate that.
You clearly graduated with honours from my course on Applied Wussery. I’m very proud.