UMUR "Bowels Of Earth" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Entombed A.D.. The album was released through Century Media Records in August 2019. It´s the successor to "Dead Dawn" from 2016 and features one lineup change since the predecessor as second guitarist Guilherme Miranda has been added to the lineup, making Entombed A.D. a five-piece on "Bowels Of Earth".

Stylistically the material on "Bowels Of Earth" is a continuation of the old school Swedish death metal style of the two predecessors. It´s slightly darker and features less death´n´roll elements (although they are still there. An example is the guitar solo section on "Elimination"), but it´s nuances and ultimately "Bowels Of Earth" sounds unmistakably like Entombed A.D.. The regular version of the album features 9 originals and a cover of "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive" by country musician Hank Williams, while the limited edition of the album features an additional cover track in "Back at the Funny Farm" by Motörhead.

The musicianship is strong and lead vocalist L-G Petrov still delivers a distinct sounding growling attack, although his vocal style has changed a bit over the years. He is slightly more monotone these days, but his vocals are still decent. The material on the album are generally well written and mostly fairly memorable, but some tracks a bit unremarkable. Highlights to my ears are the album opener "Torment Remains", the title track, "Fit for a King", and "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive". The latter is actually the most standout track on the album, and that´s of course a bit worrying, when a cover track is the most interesting song on an album, but the other tracks are of a good quality too.

"Bowels Of Earth" features a raw and powerful sound production, so it´s a quality release on most parameters. The songwriting could have been a little more memorable and there are some moments on the album which are maybe a bit dull or at least sounds much like something we´ve heard before (and better) from the band. Mostly though "Bowels Of Earth" is another good quality death metal release by Entombed A.D. and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

Nightfly It can’t be easy being Entombed A.D. Seemingly destined to always be in the shadow of the band that spawned them, Entombed of course, who were responsible for ground-breaking death metal albums like Left Hand Path and Clandestine. A band who along with others like Dismember established the Stockholm sound and influenced god knows how many imitators with that buzzsaw guitar sound. Entombed A.D. nevertheless have much to offer themselves.

Bowels Of Earth is the bands third release and I’d say it’s the best of the three. You’re not going to find any great leaps in terms of style here but if you have a penchant for straight forward no nonsense death ‘n’ roll then this could be for you. Buzzsaw guitar sound intact the band romps through ten tracks with little variation but plenty of strong riffs and hooks. The album starts off strong with first three tracks – Torment remains, Elimination and Hell Is My Home hitting all the right spots with the later perhaps the pick of the bunch. The rest though is not lacking in quality songs with the band playing with plenty of enthusiasm with only the occasional slight dip in quality but it’s barely noticeable when they do with most of the songs only being around the three minute mark. An unexpected cover of the Hank Williams song I’ll Never Get out Of This World Alive works surprisingly well with Entombed A.D. making it their own. Whilst most of the material runs along at a fair pace they throw in a few slower tempos for parts of some of the songs for variation, though final song To Eternal Night really slows things down and at 5:43 is the longest track here. It’s also a bit of a weak ending to an otherwise great album, dragging somewhat and outstaying it’s welcome.

While I’ve heard a lot of better death metal this year Bowels Of Earth is still a welcome addition and one I’ll be playing pretty regularly over the coming months. Well worth checking out if you’ve ever liked this band and its parent outfit.

Triceratopsoil If "Uprising" is Entombed's tribute to Motorhead, "Morning Star" is the greatest Slayer album that never was - just a nonstop, crushingly heavy, relentless, thrashy and sludgy metal masterpiece that still manages to be head-banging groovy.

The vocals and instruments are both heavier and harsher than the several previous album. Lyrics on the surface sound like boilerplate anti-Christian (not atypical in death metal), but lots of them are really just movie quotes. The rhythms are tight and chugging, crisp snappy drumming, spirited raw vocals, ripping guitar solos - Morning Star has a lot to offer, and is possibly the best release from this consistently great band.

Favourite tracks: Chief Rebel Angel, I for and Eye, Year One Now, Fractures, City of Ghosts, About to Die

Triceratopsoil Entombed does Motorhead-

Stockholm band Entombed is mostly famous for two things - popularizing the Boss HM-2 "chainsaw" guitar tone, and pathfinding the unfortunately nicknamed "death-n-roll" style of music. Uprising is an album that has both those trademarks. Where it differs from Entombed's other offerings is in catchiness. The grind is all there, but the riffs have a toe-tapping 70s hard rock characteristic to them. The vocals are harsh, but not death metal growls. It's an album that would be hard to place in time if you didn't know better... and yet in a sense it is far heavier than most anything from the 70s and 80s. Truly worth a listen for the open minded metalhead. Great gym music, by the way, with far better production value than their earlier studio albums.

Favourite tracks: Seeing Red, Won't Back Down, Something out of Nothing

UMUR "Erase" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Dutch death metal act Gorefest. The album was released through Nuclear Blast Records in July 1994. Gorefest had experienced a relative amount of success with both "Mindloss (1991)" and "False (1992)", and were in those days widely awknowledged as one of the most prolific death metal artsts out of The Netherlands.

With the addition of guitarist Boudewijn Bonebakker to the lineup on "False (1992)" a musical tranformation began though, and the results of that change was first heard on "Erase". While both "Mindloss (1991)" and "False (1992)" are arguably old school death metal releases to the bone, the sophistication in the guitar and harmony department were enhanced with the addition of Bonebakker to the ranks. He made it clear from the start that he wasn´t interested in just playing basic death metal, but that he wanted to incorporate a more melodic and rock oriented touch to the music, inspired by his great love of 70s and 80s heavy metal and hard rock.

Stylistically that change is clearly heard on "Erase" which features several elements from 70s and 80s heavy metal and hard rock in addition to maintaining a death metal basis. The many guitar harmonies are one of great assets of the music, and a feature the band focus on much more than before on "Erase". I wouldn´t label the music death´n´roll, but at times it´s very close to that description and it wouldn´t be completely wrong to tag the music as that. Jan-Chris De Koeijer (vocals, bass) has changed his vocal style slightly too. He is less of a growler and more or a raw barking shouter on this album.

The musicianship is strong. Gorefest were at this point a tight playing unit. Diverse rhythmic playing by drummer Ed Warby (who would later find fame with Ayreon and a bunch of other projects), great harmony guitar work and solos and catchy powerful riffs, and De Koeijer´s distinct sounding vocals in front.

The 8 tracks on the 42:21 minutes long album are all relatively catchy and powerful, and feature great guitar work. The latter element is to my ears the highlight of the album and at times the harmony guitar themes are rather sophisticated. Tracks like "Low", "Erase", "To Hell and Back", and "Goddess in Black", are among the standout tracks, but as mentioned "Erase" is a strong release throughout. It´s also a relavitely diverse release and tracks like "Peace of Paper" and "Goddess in Black" stick out as being a bit different than the rest of the material. The former is the most death metal oriented track on the album and even features a couple of blast beat sections, where the rest of the material is predominantly heavy or mid-paced. The latter mentioned track is slow paced and slightly more atmospheric than the remaining tracks.

"Erase" features a powerful and well sounding production, which suits the music perfectly. It´s not as brutal or in your face as the productions of previous releases, but it suits the more sophisticated sound well. "Erase" is probably a fanbase divider as it could prove not to be old school and brutal enough for the fans of Gorefest early material and as a consequence of the still relatively brutal vocals, it may prove a bit to harsh for those who enjoy the more rock oriented part of the band´s sound, but personally I think they strike a good balance here and a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.