ENTOMBED – Unreal Estate

Now this was an interesting twist … Entombed – the Swedish Death Metal pioneers – have gone for quite an original approach with this their latest live album, which is an uncut recording from the band’s performance in the Swedish Royal Opera House the 1st of March 2002. Back then, the band did as many as 12 gigs at that location, and that’s cool enough in and of itself. The huge reverb of the great opera hall gives the deadly heavy riffs a new dimension, and for the most part the result is very cool.

Musically there are very few downs here – “Chief Rebel Angel,” “Say It In Slugs,” “Something Out Of Nothing,” the epic “Left Hand Path,” and the legendary Roky Erikson (whomever that may be) cover “Night of the Vampires” are all great pieces of music and this unusual setting definitely adds to the musical experience. The band’s performance is tight as expected, and especially the guitars sound huge in this unusual setting. The vocals of LG Petrov are as raunchy as usual, and musically there’s nothing much to complain about.

A funny twist is what you hear in-between the songs; the usual crowd cheering is nowhere to be heard, instead the public salutes by clapping their hands, in a very polite and opera house-suiting manner. The same goes with the very cool promo pictures – bleak, fat Metalheads surrounded by ballet dancer princesses?

Still, there are a few (major) letdowns. First of all, the length – whoever got the idea to make a live album last a whopping 38 minutes? If this was all-out Grindcore from start to finish, that would have been one thing, but considering that about one half or so of the album is purely ballet dancing, this can hardly be called very good bang for the buck. The ballet pieces are neither easily understandable nor very entertaining in this format, and although the full songs are awesome and well worth a listen, this should definitely be a DVD … or what, guys?