Entombed – Metal Express Radio

ROCK WEEKEND FESTIVAL 2008 (DAY 1)

July 20, 2008 Patrik Gustavsson

Day 1 of 2, Friday July 18th The first year for the Rock Weekend Festival turned out to be pretty successful. With a good amount of advertising and a wide selection of bands on offer, it would have been strange otherwise. Add to that a location located more within the middle of the country, with several larger cities and towns within a few miles range. The crowd for this debut year estimates to some 5,000 which isn’t bad at all for a first year. The aforementioned wide array of bands, while exclusive to Hard Rock and Metal of a festival located in Sweden, the inevitable comparison to Sweden Rock isn’t far off. BLOODBOUND Third album will probably once and for all demonstrate whether Bloodbound will prove strong enough to remain for the long game, or something of a novelty act tide over by the sands of time. Certainly the debut Nosferatu impressed, but it’s sophomore Book of the Dead was merely mediocre, so strike three shall see whether the fellows, playing quite locally for this night as it happens, are bound for longevity or not. For now, they’re still very good as a live act. Former Tad Morose howler Urban Breed, who just recently was confirmed to sing for Danish Metallers Pyramaze as well, impresses as usual, with his majestic vocals in the Bruce Dickinson school, soaring through the PA. Though you’ve got to question what’s up with his onstage behaviour at times (such as partly talking English for what is presumed to be a pretty much entirely Swedish/Scandinavian audience), but it’s just his own quirky sense of humour at work. Material from Book of the Dead gets more airing than the gig at last year’s Sweden Rock when the CD was brand new, but of the songs lifted from …READ MORE

SWEDEN ROCK FESTIVAL 2006 (Day 1)

June 8, 2006 Torgeir P. Krokfjord

ENTOMBED After the intro from Unreal Estate, Entombed opened their set (as usual you’d probably say) with “Chief, Rebel, Angel”, and it was hard to fight the goose bumps growing rapidly to the sound of this fantastic song. The band, complemented by session drummer Olle Dahlstedt after long time member Peter Stjärnvind’s rumoured departure from the band, didn’t waste much time before jumping into “Serpent Speech.” The sound had been a bit muddy at first, but this was soon fixed, and the band sounded loud, firm, and full. The band delivered a high energy set, highlighted by “Rebel In Flesh,” “To Ride, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth,” “Left Hand Path,” an awesome version of “Night of the Vampire,” as well as the brand new single from the upcoming Serpent Saints album: “When in Sodom.” This track sounded as groovy and powerful as anything the band has come up with so far, and every fan of the band should definitely look forward to the upcoming album. Performance-wise, Entombed has acquired so much experience by now that there’s really no big worry that something should go wrong, and with a man as energetic as LG Petrov upfront, it’s always entertaining to watch this band. Taking into consideration their long and quite successful career, it’s also inspiring to watch how humble Petrov is, expressing his heartfelt greetings to the crowd like a star struck sixteen year old having played their first pub gig after showing a fake ID at the door. Alex Hellid also shows that the band works well with just the one guitar player, although his unaccompanied solo was rather unnecessary. Drummer Dahlstedt has to adjust the pace up a notch during the faster songs, as they lacked a bit in tempo at times, but except for this, there’s not …READ MORE

Live Reviews

ROCK THE BOAT FESTIVAL 2006 (Live) – Day 1

April 29, 2006 Torgeir P. Krokfjord

by various reviewers In the sea of Metal festivals – did you get that one? – Rock the Boat is a truly unique invention. You take a big ferry, which usually brings thirsty shopaholics from Oslo to Frederikshavn in Denmark, fill it up with an impressive range of Metal bands, cheap beer, expensive food, and as many Metalheadz as you can fit. Then you take off, and basically hope the lot gets back in decent shape the next day. There are many great assets to this concept. First of all, the setting is so intimate -– the fans easily get to socialize more with the bands, as they all party at the same place. Then there’s the short “travel” distance between the stage and the bed -– meaning one can party (even) harder, longer, and wilder without caring about the consequences; if you cannot get yourself to bed, just get your friends to call for security, and they’ll be glad to carry you down. Then, of course, it’s the Tax Free sales -– what other Norwegian-owned beer shack lets you get ahold of 24 cans of good beer for a mere $20? There’s no proper festival without a few good stories to share. It is tempting to reveal what happened when the Metal Express crew asked the ship’s staff –- who obviously didn’t read our accreditation badges too closely — for an evening meal before heading to bed (suffice it to say that Kreator didn’t get too much to eat that night). It is also tempting to go more in detail about the incident when a blonde, female, writer at Metal Express was hit on by an American male who introduced himself as “Glenn Hughes’” bass player. All seemed to believe this -– and although the guy was rather on …READ MORE

ENTOMBED – Unreal Estate

February 22, 2005 Torgeir P. Krokfjord

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 …READ MORE