#entombed — Public Fediverse posts

A misshapen, gangly, but dangerous creature once roamed the alleys and backways of Chicago, hunting for prey. Lair of the Minotaur was that altered beast, and it trafficked in a skin-melting brand of sludge-crust-thrash that was raw for the sake of rawness and heavy enough to crush a bus full of anvils. Featuring members of Serpent Crown, Nachtmystium, and Vanishment, Minotaur was loaded with seasoned, angry fiends, and on albums like The Ultimate Destroyer and Evil Power, they set out to pulverize the populace with a savage, nasty sound and an attitude that screamed: “Taste the floor, poser!” Since 2010s Evil Power, it’s been pretty quiet at Camp Bullhead, but 2026 sees them roaring back to seize the means of noise production from the soft pretenders who call themselves metal heads these days. On I Hail I, they unearth their loud, caustic, abrasive-as-fook sound and inject it with MOAR juice for 30 minutes of sonic abuse and humiliation. Is this a good thing?

It doesn’t take long to figure out the answer. Opener “Emperor of Dis” is 2 minutes of rough, filthy sludge-crust that sounds like Entombed had a gigantic baby with Black Royal and then let Biohazard raise it in the mean streets. The riffs are massively heavy, and the chugs are utterly brainless but so fucking awesome. I wish the song were 3 minutes longer, and when do I say shit like that? The title track unveils a ridiculously raw guitar tone that sounds like a busted bandsaw, and then grinds your privates with it for 2-plus minutes. It’s beautiful misery and borders on industrial noise. “Fucked Inside Out” is a weirdly accurate descriptor for how this track sounds, taking Entombed’s Wolverine Blues blueprint and upping the ante considerably for a rowdy, uncouth piece of absolute sewage. It’s the roughest 1:39 you’ll spend this year unless you fall into an industrial meatgrinder, and even then it’ll be close.

When “Saturnus Reign” comes around, you know these goons are deadly serious about this comeback. This is straight-up obscenely heavy death-doom with one boot on your throat and the other up your ass. That repeating, oppressive riff that kicks off at 0:48 is a fucking world eater that Bolt Thrower should have come up with in the 90s, and it’s going to destroy your fat face. When it drags to a halt only to jump back to life when Steve Rathbone roars, “Seventh Gate!”, it’s a special moment. 7-plus minute closer, “Tartarus Apocalypse” is another massive piece of old school death-doom with monolithic riffs that reek of Triptykon, and they’ll crush you into ass pulp in short order. With so much winning, what could possibly go wrong? Well, the cover of Southern Gothic vocalist Ethel Cain’s “Family Tree” refashioned as a scalding, Darkthrone-esque black metal piece is inspired but doesn’t really fit with the rest of the album. Follow-up cut “Vulture Worship” is a weird semi-techno, electronica-meets-synth-death experiment that doesn’t really work either. “Deepest Hell” is plenty heavy but doesn’t have the same visceral impact as its better album-mates. With 3 misses on a 30-minute album, that leaves a significant bruise. Still, the good is really fooking good and most of I Hail I will wax your ass with lava!

Steve Rathbone’s guitar tone and collection of bullying, harassing riffs sell this shit like wagyu beef smoothies at a honey badger convention. I’ve been getting oppressed by them for a week, and I keep coming back for more because MOAR. This is just ludicrously heavy, unpolished metal played at volumes unsafe even for dead things. Add to the fracas Rathbone’s hoarse roaring and guttural croaking, and things start to sound like a lunatic asylum in Hell. The dude can howl and bellow with enough conviction to get him a 72-hour psych hold, and that might actually do him some good. Sanford Parker (ex-Nachtmystium) assists Rathbone with the flesh tenderizing with his fat, thrumming low-end bass work that fills every gap with rancid sludge as Kristopher Wozniak pounds away on his kit like a meth-fueled baboon (pronounced bab-BOOM). It’s a huge, loud, chaotic dump of an album,1 but Sanford Parker did his magic as a producer and made it all palatable to the senses somehow. The guitar tone he captured here alone should earn him a Producer o’ the Year nomination.

I Hail I is a wild, weird ride through burning garbage and melting excrement. It wanders places it shouldn’t, but when it arrives at its proper destination, it will fucking kill you. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the same guys who wrote, “Let’s Kill These Motherfuckers” can still bring the hammer down forcibly. Lair of the Minotaur have returned, and the impact crater they left behind is prodigious. Listen with caution while this thing tries to gut you like a slimy fish. Hail yourself.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: The Grind-House
Websites: lairoftheminotaur.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: May 1st, 2026

I totally missed it; yesterday it's been five years since the almighty LG Petrov left us.

I met him when we organized a gig for Entombed AD in Sarajevo; one of my favorite nights ever, and a person I got to meet through the amazing work we did as booking agents.

#entombed #sweden #sarajevo #lgpetrov

I’ve kicked off this year with a good old-fashioned death binge. My putrid immersion has taken me around the world so far: first to Chile, then across the Pacific to Australia, and now back across continents to Sweden. Next up is Stockholm-based duo Harrowed. Consisting of dual-threat drummer and vocalist Adam Lindmark (ex-Morbus Chron) and guitarist/bassist Tobias Alpadie (VAK and former live guitarist for Tribulation), the pair linked up through a past project to pay homage to the SweDeath sounds of olde. With only a demo and a split to their name, their debut album, The Eternal Hunger, unleashes Harrowed’s fetid disposition upon the world with a fresh edge, proving these Swedes are more than just HM-2 clones.

But rest easy—no HM-2 pedals were harmed in the making of The Eternal Hunger. Instead, Harrowed delivers enough primitive-drenched filth to satisfy any SweDeath devotee craving the crunch. Alpadie’s serrated tremolos and lacerating riffs cut like rotary blades, while Lindmark’s feverish blasts and tribal tom rolls drench highlights like “Blood Covenant” and “The Cold of A Thousand Snows” in a heavy layer of cavernous abrasion, tearing through the speakers with surgical precision. The Stockholm sound’s hardcore punk DNA is also front and center, as the duo rips through tracks like “Ultra Terrene Phantasmagoria,” “Bayonet,” and “The Reins” with high-octane skank beats and wailing dirges. Lindmark’s vocals are a caustic mix of barbaric regurgitations, adding formaldehyde-infused dressing on Harrowed’s cadaver sandwich. Tied together by a punchy production that preserves the weight of the muddy sound of yore while also maintaining a modern, nimble edge, every disgusting note on The Eternal Hunger lands with maximum impact.

The Eternal Hunger by Harrowed

The Eternal Hunger channels the spirit of ’90s-era Entombed, yet Harrowed also weaponizes influences from far beyond Swedish borders. The duo frequently abandons standard old-school formulas to explore a diverse palette of unbridled savagery. On “Blood Covenant,” Lindmark’s stampeding, guttural-punctuated rhythms and turbulent transitions coalesce with Alpadie’s blazing fretwork, leaning closer to classic thrash than typical SweDeath. Pivoting from there, “Ultra Terrene Phantasmagoria” and “The Cold of A Thousand Snows” embrace a blackened speed identity where icy tremolos, demented double-bass attacks, and progressive ride patterns imbue a sinister edge outside typical HM-2 purism. Harrowed also pulls from the American scene. “The Eternal Hunger” mirrors the swampy, gore-soaked roots of early Autopsy and Death, while the haunting, clean arpeggios driving the title track and “The Haunter” resurrect Slayer’s “Seasons in the Abyss.” Strategic moments of suspense, where the duo strips away the distorted crust in favor of suspenseful intros and bridges, only make the final blows feel more devastating as hammering half-time grooves (“Blood Covenant”) and esoteric patterns (“Formaldehyde Dreaming,” “The Reins”) work well to keep the listener off-balance.

While Harrowed’s varied songwriting is largely airtight, certain songs reveal minor cracks. “The Reins” suffers from a disjointed bridge that briefly stalls the track’s momentum, though Lindmark’s technical drumming and visceral vocal attack do well to anchor the chaos. There are also occasional moments when tracks feel like retreads, suggesting Harrowed may have hit the bottom of their bag of tricks. “Formaldehyde Dreaming,” for instance, relies on a riff set strikingly similar to those found in “Bayonet” and “The Cold of A Thousand Snows,” while the clean intro of “The Eternal Hunger” echoes “The Haunter.” Furthermore, the title track’s brooding build-up fails to deliver a proportional payoff, indicating the track would have benefited from more editing. Despite these slip-ups, however, The Eternal Hunger remains 36 minutes of grime-soaked efficiency that favors memorable songwriting over high-concept filler.

Harrowed successfully pays homage to the Swedish spirit without merely exhuming its grave. By channeling a wide-reaching spectrum of influences and pushing them through a modern SweDeath filter, they’ve created a record that is easy to like and refuses to grow stale. Much of The Eternal Hunger’s success stems from Harrowed’s balanced and varied songwriting, with Lindmark and Alpadie both pulling their weight equally to flex their creative muscle and produce material that sounds both familiar and surprisingly fresh. A debut with this much power is impressive, especially coming from only two people. If this is what the new wave of SweDeath sounds like, I’m on board—and you should be too.

Rating: Very Good!
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Dying Victims Productions
Websites: dyingvictimsproductions.bandcamp.com/album/the-eternal-hunger | facebook.com/harroweddeathmetal
Releases Worldwide: February 27th, 2026

Sepulchral – Beneath the Shroud Review

By Steel Druhm

I’m not at all well-versed on the Spanish death metal scene, but the descriptions for Sepulchral’s sophomore opus Beneath the Shroud intrigued me sufficiently to take a cautious flyer on them for a December review. End-of-year promo offerings are always a mötley stew of rejects, wannabes, never-weres, tricksy re-releases, and lo-fi basement black metal albums set to release on Christmas day, so I didn’t expect much. What I got was something interesting indeed. Sepulchral rock a very old school death metal approach with a prominent blackened streak that sometimes takes center stage. There are nods to early Entombed and the punkier Autopsy releases, and more than a little similarity to proto-black metal bands like Bathory and early Sodom. The resulting racket is brutish, slack-jawed, entertaining, and certainly nostalgia-inducing for olde heads like Yours Steely. This is pure throwback glory, and it isn’t going to move any needles forward, but it sure tries to bend them backward.

After a refined and tasteful instrumental intro, Sepulchral come out with a greasy, filthy bang on the title track, which splits the baby between d-beat-heavy Swedeath and Bathory’s immortal second album, The Return. It’s retro-as-fook, but endearing as all get out. Vocals are like early days Quothorn mixed with Autopsy’s Chris Reifert, and the frantic, bouncy riffs will remind the aged metalhead of any number of 80s proto-death and proto-metal acts. At its core, it’s just a fun, over-the-top dose of thrashy, punky death with swagger and charm. “Abandoned Feretrum” is a macap, thrashing, tantrum of a tune with awkward, stuttering riffs that bulldoze everything and everyone into a muddy mass grave as crazed vocals babble, croak, and vomit forth nonsense. I loved this one immediately and I just keep playing it. Those simple caveman power chugs that pop up are pure gainz fuel for gym time. With the basic template thus set, Sepulchral proceed to blast, hammer, smoosh, and squish you with slight variations of it over the next 35 minutes.

This very singular approach works great on “Conflagration of Sacred Bones” and the remorseless wargrinder that is “Cloaked Spectres,” which feels unstoppable due to its penchant for big, dumb, power chugs. Slower selections like “From the Crypt, the Putrid Mist” remind of long-buried 80s proto-black metallers N.M.E., due to that clonky bass sound.1 “Gravestone Covenant” is a rumbling, brain-crushing Panzer of a song that annihilates everything in its path, and “Poison Wind” is an unabated beat down, brainless and bloodthirsty. As fun as the core Sepulchral sound is, they can run into issues when they stretch songs out and try for different moods. “Torchless Crossroads” is good, but it attempts to mellow things out too much on the back-end, creating a dull, dead space that doesn’t add any real atmosphere. “Gravestone Covenant” opts for a doomy wind-out but pulls it off better, though it would be better if it were left off entirely. Another issue is the tendency for the songs to all bleed together into an agitated, writhing mush. It’s a fun one to be sure, but it does feel like a lot of the same hash and beans by the time the album wraps.

Guitarist “Gorka” digs deep into the 80s for inspiration, offering a rabid, rotten collection of riffs that sound like they were culled from the first few Bathory albums and then dumped into an Entombed-ifier filter, only to be abandoned in a public toilet with Autopsy’s Shitfun. It’s moldy, and the stench is formidable, but 90% of the fun here is generated by the frantic, unceasing riffage and chuggery. And boy, those power chugs drain IQ points at a startling rate, but I can’t get enough of them. “Gaueko” provides gruesome vocals that sit exactly between death and black metal and are often no more than a raw bark or croak. His penchant for adding frequent vomit and spewing noises as accents is a plus, and he’s a reliable narrator for the horrors Sepulchral describes. His thumping, thudding bass-work is a boon as well, bubbling away in the background and foreground as needed.

Venturing Beneath the Shroud reveals something nasty, profane, and grotesque that cannot be unheard. It’s more fun than expected, though there are noticeable warts, boils, and blemishes along the way. Sepulchral may never end up a household name outside of their area of influence, but they have something cool going on with this mega-retro sound. If you appreciate the early days of extreme metal, take a whiff of this piece of offal.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Soulseller Records
Websites: sepulchraldeathmetal.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/sepulchraldeathmetal | instagram.com/sepulchral.osdm
Releases Worldwide: December 5th, 2025

#2025 #30 #autopsy #bathory #beneathTheShroud #deathMetal #dec25 #entombed #nME #review #reviews #sepulchral #sodom #soulsellerRecords #spanishMetal

Carnal Savagery – Crypt of Decay Review

By Steel Druhm

Advanced scientific studies indicate that the style of metal known as “Swedeath” will not die and may, in fact, be incapable of being killed. The foundation created by Entombed and Dismember in the early 90s cemented the “Stockholm Sound” so deeply in musical bedrock that forecasters predict it could function like an everflowing stream for untold aeons. Enter Sweden’s Carnal Savagery. This gruesome duo have gone in big on the Swedeath formula, releasing 6 albums of it since 2020, all of which pay loving homage to the genre’s forefathers. Crypt of Decay is their 7th album in 5 years, so clearly, they just can’t stop spewing this fetid gunk into the world at a reckless pace. What does the new material sound like? Well, DisEntombed, of course. It’s got exactly zero new ideas, even less innovation, and you’ll be subjected to endlessly recycled ideas all powered by the force of the HM-2 pedal. Guitars will buzz, vocals will wretch, and you’ll ingest mass quantities d-beated death. Sound good?

As with many Carnal Savagery releases, they come out strong with a ripping, tearing monstrosity on “Entangled in Barbed Wire.” Rather than the usual thievery from the first few Dismember records, this sounds a whole lot like something off Slaughter of the Soul due to the riff patterns and the hyperkinetic energy (maybe even too much like something off Slaughter of the Soul). Flagrant influence humping aside, it’s a rousing blast of death metal with teeth and badass energy, so it works. As “Amputation” rolls in, it’s back to the Stockholm salt mines for the expected poaching off albums like Indecent and Obscene and Massive Killing Capacity. What sells it for me besides the furious energy is how it sounds like the vocalist keeps bellowing “GRAMPUTATION!,” leaving me to wonder why he hates old dudes so much. “Torn from the Grave” is another burner with vicious, blasting fury, and it’s interesting enough to get by despite some oh so familiar riffs.

From here, however, the ground becomes more unsteady. Some tracks just kinda lie there and refuse to play ball. “Scalped and Flayed” goes too far down a death-doom rat hole and feels lifeless and dull, while “Gruesome Death” feels generic and stock standard. At times, there’s an injection of the classic Wolverine Blues swagger and rock-based swing as on “Curse of the Catacomb” and the title track, but it doesn’t completely work. Overall, you get roughly half an album’s worth of C+ and B-level Swedeath with some clunkers and also-rans popping up to drag the momentum downward. Unfortunately, this is an issue Carnal Savagery struggles with regularly. They write some bangers to hook you in, then the wheels come off the War Wagon before they reach the finish line. Thankfully, most of the songs run only 2-3 minutes, so nothing gums up the works too severely (except “Gruesome Death”), and the 34-plus-minute runtime is short enough to stave off most variants of Swedeath fatigue.

Swedeath needs riotous, raucous and deadly riffs to fully capture the brainpan, and Mikael Lindgren can and does deliver some of these, usually with a strong Dismember flavor. But he also lapses into less stellar leads and ideas a bit too often, causing some cuts to feel generic and half-baked. His flowery solo style is a nice relief from the neanderthal buzz and brutality, showing another side of the duo’s identity, and that should be explored a bit more often to keep things interesting. Mattias Lilja’s death vocals are solid and full of greasy charm, sitting somewhere between the late, great L.G. Petrov and Dismember’s Matti Kärki. He doesn’t offer much in the way of versatility, but you don’t come here for that anyway. As per usual, it’s the songwriting that lets them down, with some tracks being killer and others ending up closer to filler.

Carnal Savagery usually serve up 3-4 songs that put a meat fork in your adrenal gland and activate your altered beat. The rest range from okay and underwhelming. Crypt of Decay is right in that modality. The good is fun, the rest is tolerable but non-essential. That sounds like a playlist poacher to me! Desecrate the Crypt and take what you like and leave the rest to rot in peace.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Moribund Records
Websites: facebook.com/carnalsavagery | instagram.com/carnalsavagery
Releases Worldwide: November 28th, 2025

#25 #2025 #carnalSavagery #cryptOfDecay #deathMetal #dismember #entombed #gravewormsCadaversCoffinsAndBones #moribundRecords #nov28 #review #reviews #slaughterOfTheSoul #swedishMetal

Just came across this Soulfly song, which Max has dedicated to LG (Petrov, Entombed) which was nice I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JifscuVj8-U

#Metal #NewReleases #Soulfly #Entombed

Swedish "cultural canon" that omits #Bathory, #Candlemass, #Entombed, #Grave, #Dismember & all the classic death metal scene, #Opeth ... ridiculous.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/02/outcry-as-swedish-cultural-canon-snubs-abba-and-anything-since-1975

No Shelter. – Remission/Resolve Review

By Angry Metal Guy

Written By Nameless_n00b_605

These days, it seems everywhere I turn, I can’t help but run into a great band from Germany. I don’t know what’s in the water over there, but with groups like Kanonenfieber, Unhallowed Deliverance, and classic acts like Sodom releasing great records, it’s no surprise that yet another talented group hails from Deutschland. No Shelter. is a five-piece from Münster that peddles in D-beat brutalization with a heaping helping of Boss HM-2 pedal worship. Its latest, Remission/Resolve, is a bass-driven freight train of Swedish-coded blackened death metal, crust punk, and hardcore, conjuring direct comparisons to genre stalwarts like Nails, Rotten Sound, and Trap Them. Can No Shelter. stand in the spotlight with some of the most vicious rippers around, or is it flying too close to the sun, wax wings ready to send it to hell with the rest of the copycats?

No Shelter. is relatively new to the scene (forming in 2017), but it sounds like a veteran unit. Every element of the band feels honed for their specific brand of violence. Thick, earth-shaking bass drives the album, while HM-2-infused riffage switches between blackened death blasts and Pantera-esque grooves. Bolstered by intricate drum fills and classic hardcore 2-step energy, the vocals are equally caustic, calling to mind a truly evil combo of Ringworm’s James Bulloch and Nails’ Todd Jones. No Shelter. plays with no holds barred throughout the entire album, and each band member takes to their role with a reckless abandon more than fitting for their genre inspirations.

The brutally sludgy bass is the adrenaline-juiced heart that keeps Remission/Resolve pumping. Where bands like Job for a Cowboy and Horrendous use bass to shore up their technicality and the spaciness of their sound, No Shelter. uses it as a sledgehammer. Bass is integral to metal, making riffs deeper, heavier, and more impactful overall, and No Shelter. just gets it. Every riff is complemented by slapping destruction, and the bass gets to fly free or drive breakdowns such as on tracks “Rotten,” “Doomed,” and “Ultimate Disgust”. No Shelter. suplexes the trend of bass-less metal right into the dumpster with And Justice for All.

Another element where No Shelter. pulls its sound from the Swedish death metal sewer is the production. The band wears its Entombed inspiration on its sleeve proudly (if the “Wolverine Blues” cover didn’t already give it away), and the HM-2 pedal is all over Remission/Resolve. Production was something No Shelter. wanted to nail, and Remission/Resolve is borderline perfect in this area. The bass is suitably nasty without sounding like a punchline (sorry Primus, I still love you), the snare drum hits hard without becoming tinny, and the vocals are discernible while still retaining the rawness and emotionality required for D-beat destruction. To cap it all off, the guitar brings cohesion to Remission/Resolve with that classic chainsaw tone that would make bands like Hath, Dismember, and Dormant Ordeal proud.

Remission/Resolve isn’t perfect, although where it stumbles isn’t in songwriting or musicianship. This LP lasts a blistering 32 minutes, but the collection of twelve tracks starts with an intro, features two interludes, and a cover as the final track. While I appreciate the interludes as breaks from the aural onslaught on Remission/Resolve, they vary in quality. The unoriginally titled “Intro” (at least it knows what it is) is suitably sinister and builds up anticipation, but the two interludes are almost too simple musically and seem to only exist to let the listener breathe. An admirable idea, and one that is necessary for a lot of albums in this genre, but these moments would be better served attached to the end of already existing tracks. On top of that, I wish they would loop back in on the musical themes established across the album and in the intro, as it stands, the two interludes “I” and “II” feel like they come from a different album.

No Shelter. ends up with a very good record that stands nearly toe-to-toe with its genre inspirations and rightfully lives up to the bands it references so heavily. Therefore, it is fitting that Remission/Resolve closes things with a rip-roaring cover of Entombed’s “Wolverine Blues,” a song that slides so well into the band’s sound, it took me a minute to realize it was a cover in the first place. “Wolverine Blues” ends up feeling perfectly placed right alongside the best tracks on the album and works as a self-referential closer to an album chock-full of Swedish buzzsaw worship. No Shelter. doesn’t so much rock the boat with its brand of blackened hardcore as it does slap a fuckin’ motor on it and violently rocket across the lake.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: This Charming Man Records
Websites: noshelter.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/NoShelterBand
Releases Worldwide: July 25th, 2025

#2025 #35 #BlackenedDeathMetal #Crust #DBeat #Dismember #DormantOrdeal #Entombed #GermanMetal #Hardcore #Hath #Jul25 #Kanonenfieber #Nails #NoShelter_ #Primus #RemissionResolve #Review #Reviews #RottenSound #Sodom #SwedishDeathMetal #TrapThem #UnhallowedDeliverance

Ashen – Leave the Flesh Behind Review

By Kenstrosity

Australian death metal troupe Ashen impressed me back in 2023, but not because their debut record Ritual of Ash was an especially good or groundbreaking record. Instead, their confident presentation, deceptively impactful songwriting structures, and subtly distinct approach to a weathered style of death metal struck me as a rare case. Where many acts that pedal peddle an HM-2 or adjacent style of death metal content themselves with base reproduction of common idols, Ashen merely use their influences as a foundation for their own voice. With more time to massage their songwriting further and strengthen their identity, Ashen prepare sophomore monster Leave the Flesh Behind, and it’s big.

Simple songwriting predicated on strict formulas leads to treacherous places riddled with pitfalls. Monotony, boredom, lack of identity, flatness, and toothlessness characterize countless records written by bands unprepared to navigate these pitfalls, but Ashen swerve and swivel around many of them. Of course, those familiar with Entombed, Dismember, or more modern acts like Wombbath and Helslave are bound to hear a familiar thread connecting Leave the Flesh Behind to the classic HM-2 sound and style. But with each of those categories, Ashen tweak and twist it with a gentle hand into a gnarled form, curling mid-paced stomps into knotty tangles of deceptively sophisticated riffs and mammoth grooves. Darker still than Ritual of Ash, Leave the Flesh Behind feels thoroughly ominous, dangerous, and unstoppable. Thanks to a production job that highlights the low end and scoops the midrange just a touch, Ashen’s sound creates a wide and airy soundstage. On it, Ashen’s crushing footfalls reverberate though the air with all the menace of an unearthly beast, heard but not seen.

As is the case with many records in my library, Leave the Flesh Behind’s title track is the perfect encapsulation of what Ashen do best. Mid-paced, but vicious, riffs richly layered in dark harmonies flood my synapses, compelling my neck to swing with a violence it was not designed to withstand. So satisfying is this track, in fact, that since my first spin, I haven’t been able to progress through this tight 39-minute runtime without spinning “Leave the Flesh Behind” at least twice. Similarly effective, “Ancestral Gate” and closer “Blood Offering” deal an effortless percussive swagger that contorts the muscles in my face into something grotesque and inhuman. Slower, moodier highlights like “Infinite Sea” and “Severed” showcase Ashen’s talent for off-kilter rhythms inside conventional time signatures and melody-driven, doomed riffs that nonetheless bare an intimidating spread of teeth. Best of all, Leave the Flesh Behind doesn’t wander even when it does slow things to a dying crawl, as vocal lines take center stage to add interest in much the same way Rotpit‘s did on Let There Be Rot.

As successful as Leave the Flesh Behind’s strongest moments are, some of what lies between doesn’t live up to its potential. None of these weaker moments heavily detract from the album experience individually. Rather, they accumulate. Most of this accumulation occurs at the center of the record, populated by a run of three songs between “Void Within” and “Reincarnate.” These lack the same verve and vitality of the songs bookending them, and could use sharper hooks. While competent on their own, the consequent drop in excitement and thereby momentum creates a stagnation where a burst of new life is needed instead. Passages in each song have the potential to resolve that issue had they been developed differently (see the deep trem-picked rumble in the final third of “Void Within,” or the Morbid Angel riffing meets Rotpit slime in “Ageless”), but as they are they can’t carry their respective numbers to the finish line.

Overall, Leave the Flesh Behind is a modest improvement on the already good Ritual of Ash, and a significant indicator of greater things still to come. Ashen strike me as a band that value continuous improvement, but also steady and controlled development. I’m not an especially patient man, but when I pick up hints of greatness from bangers like “Leave the Flesh Behind” and “Ancestral Gate,” I’m more than happy to wait for that special moment when Ashen drop a monstrous mastapeece. As far as I’m concerned, it’s only a matter of time.

Rating: Good!
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Redefining Darkness Records
Websites: ashendeath.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/ashendeath
Releases Worldwide: August 22nd, 2025

#2025 #30 #Ashen #Aug25 #AustralianMetal #DeathMetal #Dismember #Entombed #Helslave #LeaveTheFleshBehind #MorbidAngel #RedefiningDarknessRecords #Review #Reviews #Rotpit #Wombbath

Unleashed – Fire Upon Your Lands Review

By Steel Druhm

One of the most amusing stories in metal lore is how every single member of influential Swedish death metal act Nihilist left because they didn’t want to work with Johnny Hedlund any longer. These wayward musicians then formed Entombed, leaving Hedlund to his own devices to create Unleashed and chart his own course into Swedish metal history. That course often involved tales of Viking raids and drunken toasting to the Norse Gods, beating Amon Amarth to those now well-worn tropes by some 5 years. The typical Unleashed sound is riffy, hooky, and a touch anthemic, but heavy enough to leave hammer marks. It’s been a long, strange voyage since 92, and they’ve had their share of ups and downs, but they’ve been trending in the right direction since 2012s Odalheim. It’s been almost 4 years since they dropped 2021s No Sign of Life, but here they come again with 15th album, Fire Upon Your Lands. Are the longships still seaworthy? Does the fire still burn in Eitri’s foundry? Let us test the runes.

I’ll say this for the 2025 version Unleashed: they still pack a lot of vim and vigor in their raiding kit. Opener “Left for Dead” gives no quarter, coming for your head like a rabid berserker. It’s heavy, mean, and reminds me of the extra-nasty stuff on their Where No Life Dwells debut, before they adopted the whole Viking schtick. Hedlund sounds large and pissed off, and the riffs have weight and teeth. “A Toast to the Fallen” keeps the heaviness flowing while shoehorning in lines about toasting the fallen and hailing Thor at every possible opportunity. Since I’m never opposed to hailing and toasting Thor, I have no beef, and it’s a fun, beer-swigging tune for the bold. From there, Unleashed run like an everflowing stream from one ballsy beat down to another like “War Comes Again,” with aggression and urgency balanced adroitly with nods to macho melodeath. It’s a classic Unleashed cut and hits the spot like the blood of one’s enemies. The burly, battle-hardened title track feels like it came from their Midvinterblut album, which is one of my personal favorites, so I enjoy it plenty.1

The best part about Fire Upon Your Lands is the overall consistency of the material. There’s a pornucopia of raw energy and sizzle over the album’s 38 minutes, with pretty much every song delivering body blows. Even cheese-stuffed anthem “Hold Your Hammers High” works due to sheer caveman death metal seduction. Are there issues? Well, the track “To My Only Son” is like a shameless reboot of Manowar’s classic gem “Defender,” about a warrior’s letter to his son telling him how to live proudly. Hell, they even borrow the line, “As you read these words, I want you to know…”. Since I grew up blasting “Defender” a zillion times in my formative years, my brain autofills with “…that I would have been there to watch you grow. But my call was heard, and I did go.” It’s not a bad song, but it cuts way too close to a legendary moment in metal.2 Closing cut “Unknown Flag” is a bit odd, since it seems to be about pirates and therefore conflicts with the whole Vikings ethos. It’s the weakest track here, but it isn’t a dead loss, just a touch underwhelming. With all the songs in the 2-4 minute window, things blast along at a frantic pace, their tried-and-true style sounding refreshed, reborn, and badass. It’s one of the most lively Unleashed platters, and it all hangs together well.

With the same lineup in place forever, the playing is tight, crisp, and effectively minimalist when needed, maximalist when it helps. Johnny Hedlund’s booming death vocals sound surprisingly ageless. He’s found the Fountain of Death Youth and snarls and roars like a much younger man throughout the Viking blitz. He’s always had a certain Neanderthal charm to his delivery, and it’s still present as he regales you with yarns about conquest and chronic mead abuse. Long-time axe tandem Tomas Olsson and Fredrik Folkare bring their riffy, gritty style to the field, delivering thuggy grooves, vicious leads, a touch of classic d-beatery, and interestingly fluid and melodic solo work. The riff quality is above average, and they drive the material hard. I’m especially fond of their work on “Left for Dead” and “A Toast to the Fallen,” and they bring just enough blackened rage to the party to spice up the more typical death lines.

After some 33 years in the raiding game, Unleashed don’t show their age on Fire Upon Your Lands. All the classic Unleashed trademarks are present, the writing is sharp, and the attitude is appropriately beastial and unyielding. I didn’t expect this much fire, and I’m very happy to be burned by it. Now it’s your turn to gird thy loins and push that enemy shield wall into the sea. Do it for Johnny!

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: NA | Format Reviewed: Damn This Goddamn STREAM to Hades!!
Label: Napalm
Websites: unleashed.se/website/index.php | facebook.com/unleashed | instagram.com/unleashed_official
Releases Worldwide: August 15th, 2025

#2025 #35 #AmonAmarth #Aug25 #DeathMetal #Entombed #FireUponYourLands #NapalmRecords #Review #Reviews #SwedishMetal #Unleashed

Decades old #LiveMusic venue's existence threatened by inept bankrupt #Oakland city #bureaucracy.

Eli's #MileHigh club, which was started by late Eli Thornton in 70s (before he was murdered in the joint by his girlfriend ), has hosted live gigs in its late last quarter of the 20th century blues heyday when John Lee Hooker, #CharlieMusselwhite, Etta James, Lowell Fulson, Tommy Castro, James Cotton, Little Charlie & The Night Cats, and even James Brown might make the scene, as patrons feasted on giant burgers, gumbo, andouille sausage and fried shrimp made by the ol' lady in the back. More recently, after it's musician owner Troyce Key passed, new ownership fought for years to regain a #Cabaret permit to begin a 21st century phoenix rising era of mixing emergent #hardrock & punk band bookings including locals like Sleep, #HighOnFire and #Entombed in with local blues and barbq, but now in 2025, those days are over.

#WestOakland #DiveBar has been forced to cut staff and close their outdoor smoking & bar bq area portion. Long used by Eli's patrons for decades, but apparently a 'non permitted' backyard area (according to city), it has become an issue now after new neighbor complaints, including many from a recent #residential highrise that was built long after the bar was an #EastBay #nightlife fixture .

Mgmt is asking for support from patrons, and particularly seek photos over a decade old that hopefully show previous outdoor backyard activity.

https://www.kqed.org/arts/13972851/elis-mile-high-club-oakland-patio-closure

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Today In Metal History 🤘 March 3rd, 2023 🤘 METALLICA, ENTOMBED, MONTROSE, JETHRO TULL, TRIUMPH
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https://bravewords.com/news/today-in-metal-history-march-3rd-2023-metallica-entombed-montrose-jethro-tull-triumph

#Metallica #Entombed #Montrose #JethroTull #Triumph #March3 #TodayInMetalHistory #MetalMusic