ENTOMBED A.D. — Back to the Front (review)

ENTOMBED A.D. — Back to the Front album cover Album · 2014 · Death 'n' Roll Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Back to the Front" is the debut full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Entombed A.D.. The album was released through Century Media Records in August 2014. "Back to the Front" was originally meant to be the 10th full-length studio album by Entombed, but before recording the album guitarist Alex Hellid decided to quit, and the four remaining members (Lars Göran Petrov (Vocals), Nico Elgstrand (Guitars), Victor Brandt (Bass), Olle Dahlstedt (Drums)) recorded the album after they opted to continue with the band. Because of disagreements over the ownership of the Entombed name, they were not allowed to release "Back to the Front" under that monicker though, so they decided to release the album under the Entombed A.D. monicker instead.

...and listening to "Back to the Front" it makes perfect sense that they opted to continue with the Entombed name, even though they were forced to add the A.D. at the end of it, because this sounds unmistakably like Entombed. You won´t notice that there now isn´t a single person in the band that has appeared on every release the band have recorded. Besides Alex Hellid, the above mentioned lineup is actually also the exact same lineup who recorded the band´s previous studio album "Serpent Saints: The Ten Amendments (2007)", so these guys have played music together as Entombed for many years now.

Stylistically the music on the album pretty much continues the distinct sounding death metal style of it´s predecessor. So it´s a mixture of old school Swedish death metal, rock´n´roll, hard rock, and punk influences. There´s little new to be found here as this is more or less how the band have sounded since 1993, but they´ve increased the old school death metal elements a slight bit over the last couple of releases and the death´n´roll tag that has been applied to them is only partially true these days, and it´s probably mostly due to the organic, raw and filthy way the band play their death metal and how they chose to produce their albums. Entombed deliver both heavy and mid-paced tracks and occasionally speed up to a faster pace too. The music is not just raw death metal as the band also successfully incorporate acoustic guitars and piano to some tracks as atmosphere enhancers. As always it´s Lars Göran Petrov´s distinct sounding semi-growling vocals that defines the band´s sound, but the guitar tone and the riffing are also easily recognisable as the sound of Entombed.

The material on the 11 track, 51:08 minutes long "Back to the Front", features few surprises and as such it´s just another good quality release in a longer line of good quality releases by Entombed. I wouldn´t rate it among the band´s best output, but it´s a fairly strong release that shows that Entombed A.D. are more than worthy to carry on the legendary name (A.D. added or not). A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.
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