ENTOMBED — Wolverine Blues (review)

Album · 1993 · Death 'n' Roll

5/5 · 2011-04-06
Time Signature

Blood song...

Genre: so-called death 'n' roll

Let me start with an anecdote. Back when this album first came out, I had it on cassette and would often listen to it on my walkman while bicycling to school. One day, I was on my way to my final English exam in school, and I was listening to "Wolverine Blues" on my walkman. I came to a t-junction and had to turn right. Being fully immersed in the music, I did not notice that there was a big 4x4 with a horse trailer coming in from the left. So I went out right in front of the car, resulting in me feeling the ground shake from the vibrations from the car, and then finding myself being hurled through the air, Entombed thundering into my ears. The driver of the car, the decent person he was, stopped and came out to check if I was okay. I got on me feet and, miraculously, the only injury was some deep scraped on my hand and the pedal of my bike being slightly bent. I told him I was okay and that he shouldn't worry; it was my own fault anyway. So he moved on, and I moved on. I made it to the exam - it was a written exam - and handed in an almost illegible essay (my hands had started shaking, of course, as the adrenaline effects wore off) with blood on it from my scraped hands. I actually passed the exam with top marks. So, I have had the honor of being hit by a car, and miraculously surviving, while listening to this album... how many people can brag about that?!?

So, what about this album? It is considered the seminal album of the death 'n' roll genre, but - to be honest - I think that it's more of a type of death thrash. Entombed certainly draw on groove metal and hardcore punk and a bit on more general hardrock on this album, but I don't really hear any rock 'n' roll influences, so I think that death 'n' roll is quite a misnomer. But I think that, in any case, this musical development is interesting, because Entombed started changing their style at a time when death metal has become stagnant and, for some reason, there was a sort of restistance towards this in Sweden, and I think that both death 'n' roll and melodeath arose a reactions towards this stagnation of death metal, driven by the urge to further develop and explore the genre.

"Wolverine Blues" is basically a lecture in how to successfully combine groove thrash, crossover thrash and death metal into a very energetic and catchy yet aggressive style, and, as soon as you press play, you can't help but headbanging and moshing around like a madman in your living room. And that is because, I think, of the combination of the two very different energies of groove thrash and hardcore/crossover. While I think that many bands went overboard with the groove thing, which resulted in mediocre groove thrash, Entombed successfully developed a unique and engaging style of groove metal.

This album is simply outstanding (and a danger to traffic).

more than 2 years ago
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voila_la_scorie wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I heard this the other night and thought, "I must get this!" That was followed by "Next month" as I have already blown my CD budget for May. Then the price on Amazon went down and, well, maybe if I skip lunch a coule of days... It's ordered.

But what an anecdote of yours! I never liked listening to music while riding a bicycle exactly because I need my ears. But now I just walk everywhere so I listen to music and keep my head turning, watching out for danger as I go.

Time Signature wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I actually remember, while being hurled through the air "Okay, now I've tried this, too", followed by the Danish equivalent of "fuck... I'm dead" just before hitting the asphalt.

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Good to hear you survived the crash with only minor injuries :-). I really enjoy this album too and like you I would struggle a bit to describe the style. It´s quite a unique sounding album.