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Genre: Death Fuckin’ Metal

Label: Dark Descent Records

Beware, mortals.. for now we step back through time and darkness into the archaic age of old school swedish death metal, and into the grasp of the entity known as Entrails! Originally formed in 1991, Entrails disbanded without releasing anything, but was exhumed in 2008 by guitarist Jimmy Lundqvist. Two demos were released, and the debut album “Tales From The Morgue” finally took shape in 2010, nearly two decades after the inception of the band. Now, with the sophmore effort “The Tomb Awaits” pending release on Dark Descent Records, I had the opportunity to give it a listen in advance.

“The Tomb Awaits” opens with the title track, a soft, beautiful, reflective classical guitar instrumental. It reminds me of “Lamentation” off of God Macabre’s classic Swedeath monolith “The Winterlong”, and I very much appreciated it both as a standalone song and an atmospheric prelude.

But Being a Swedeath junkie, I was not at all surprised when after scarcely a minute of soft acoustic serenading, Entrails turned around and punched me in my goddamn face with about a ton of ripping HM-2 guitar tone. “Unleashed Wrath” is instantly remniscent of the mighty “Left Hand Path”, and segways into one of the stronger tracks on the album, “Crawling Death”, featuring an ominously simple piano intro and nefariously catchy chant of “CRAWLING DEATH!”. This 3 punch combo knocked me on my ass and left me waiting for a weaker track, but Entrails just never let up. It makes me wonder why they ever broke up in the first place.

The riffs! Man, these guys have cool riffs out the ass, all ripped from the amplifier with that absolutely timeless Swedish guitar sound! Every song on this disc has at least a couple riffs that you can’t help but bang your head to (Entrails and their label will be receiving a bill from my chiropractor along with my preorder for a hard copy of the album). From the epic intro of “Undead” to the diabolical tremolo picking of “Total Death”, I was never bored with the visceral Swedish filth assaulting my eardrums.

The leads too, are thoroughly badass, just as much so as the riffs that make up the meat of the songs. Never wanking or shredding overly much, Entrails instead opt for a more melodic, creative approach to guitar solos that contrasts with the surrounding ultraviolence in a way that is very pleasing to the ear, and conjures up the ghost of old school Dismember.

Though this stuff is obviously very traditional (you won’t hear any hyperblasts or extended sweep picking), it still sounds fresh and exciting to me, and it would be a grave mistake to disregard Entrails as a simple retro nostalgia band. If anyone has a right to be playing Left Hand Path death nowadays, it’s these guys, 20 year scene veterans who obviously hold a LOT of pent up creativity. Thoroughly Swedish and thoroughly Death metal, I think “The Tomb Awaits” could have been classic if it had been released in the early 90′s golden era of death metal. Buy this album if you like Entombed, Grave, Unleashed, Dismember, Carnage, and God Macabre. Fuck, just buy this album if you like death metal. A round of applause for Entrails. 8.5/10!

Genre: Death Metal
Label: Dark Descent Records

Gravehill’s metal of death is a force to be reckoned with, and their newest album hits with even more of that force, enough to bang your head and shake your fist.
A higher level of technicality (due to a new guitarist, primarily) but not while compromising the raw brutality that Gravehill endeared themselves to me with, When All Roads Lead To Hell is a feast of riffs and solos, and Mike Abominator’s unique vocals are better understood while still sounding like he’s choking on sandpaper. Fucking awesome!
Mike was quoted as saying that When All Roads Lead To Hell is a better album than Rites of the Pentagram, and even though all bands say that he meant it. And I agree. I loved Rites…, but …Roads… IS better!
Throw in a secret track consisting of a cover of AC/DC’s “If You Want Blood (You Got It)”, and you’ve got a fucking brilliant disc of human hating, Christ bashing death metal.
9 out of 10.

Gravehill on Facebook.
Gravehill on MySpace.

Genre: Death Metal
Label: Dark Descent Records

Finnish death metal brutalizers Corpsessed are definitely looking to make an impact with this disc. And what an impact indeed.
Picture your face getting ripped off, fucked, then slapped back onto your skull while getting kicked in the nuts. And that’s only the beginning. This is not just some throwback tribute to the old school of death metal, this is a true monster of the old school.
The disc starts off with a slow, doomy intro with growls and some serious atmosphere. It’s menacing as fuck, a feature that continues throughout the CD.
“Crypt Infester” follows, keeping a slightly doomed feel, with some clean lead sections at the beginning, then going for a crushing main riff. Fucking amazing.
“Nameless Cult” is another atmosphere-of-evil covered song, reminding me a little of Morbid Angel’s earliest stuff. It’s definitely slower moving, dragging you along through it’s horrors. When it speeds up the atmosphere doesn’t dissipate, but rather thickens, bringing your head to bang with or without your consent. The only thing I honestly wish was different with this song is it’s length; it’s too short.
“Altar of Worms” is  a heavy assault of metal, picking the pace up a little from “Nameless Cult”, but not by much. The doom feel is a little less pervasive, but still elements are there, which I’m loving.
“Massgrave” is the longest track on the album at 5:15, and it takes over from “Altar…” with barely a pause. It’s so good that even at the five minute mark it’s not getting boring. The doom is back a little, mostly in the vocals, very much reminding me of funeral doom type throatwork.
The title, and final track, starts off all ambient and droning, for almost a minute, then just kicks you down another set of stairs with the fastest, most brutal track on the disc. Pure ferocity, and yet somehow these guys can keep that element of atmosphere, that thick cloud of horror around your ankles. Just great.
In other words, I love this album. I can’t wait for it to be released, I’ve got the CD preordered right now.
9 out of 10.

California-based death horde GRAVEHILL has posted the track “Devil Worshiper” from their forthcoming new album When All Roads Lead To Hell at this location. When All Roads Lead To Hell is set to be released on May 20th through Dark Descent Records with vinyl treatment coming in July courtesy of Dark Descent and Chaos Records. 2011 promises to be a huge year for GRAVEHILL with appearances at Maryland Death Fest and Central Illinois Metalfest on tap, with much more to come. Check-in at the band’s Myspace, ReverbNation or Facebook pages for details and updates.

The following was issued by California-based death horde Gravehill in regards to their forthcoming album, When All Roads Lead to Hell, and the band’s new label situation.

“Gravehill has spent the past several months in seclusion finishing our new album When all Roads Lead to Hell. We had several songs already written before we undertook the “Campaign Tour” last summer. When we invited Hellfiend (aka Matt Harvey of Exhumed) to join the band full time, we spent the time necessary to either “re-evaluate” or completely ditch what we had. Thankfully most of the music was used and with Hellfiend’s input we felt we had eight songs worthy of recording.
We entered Trench Studios in March 2011 with John Haddad and laid down all drums, guitars, bass and vocals… most of the tracking was pretty effortless and relaxed, we either had an idea of what we wanted or we’re just really good at convincing each other we knew what we were doing? The most common question asked regarding this record is “How does it compare to Rites of the Pentagram?” All bands always respond with “This is the best record we’ve ever done, the last album pales in comparison and blah blah blah…” The best way to respond to that is simply “Ryan Butler!” When we left Trench Studios making the RotP record we were happy with the result, obviously some things could have been better or even worse if you think about it? But the song writing and over all rawness of the band did shine through! However by 86′ing Zyklon-A out of the band last summer and bringing in Hellfiend just offered a wealth of alternatives, one of them being the new Exhumed record All Guts, No Glory! Ryan Butler of Arcane Digital did all the guitar, bass and vocal tracking for that record. Hearing the wall of guitars really made an easy decision to provide the WARLTH record to Ryan to mix and master. We also laid down four guitar rhythm tracks unlike the two we used on RotP! The end result is this heavy as fuck, pissed off, intense, faster and dare I say “mature” record? Considering all the trials and tribulations we had with RotP as well as a less than stellar line-up; up to this point anyway, When All Roads Lead to Hell might as well be our first record! We are that proud of this record, love it or hate it, we have made the best fucking Death Metal record we ever wanted to hear!
When it came to deciding on who would be releasing this album we had an easy decision with Dark Descent Records. Matt Calvert came highly recommended and after a few short discussions we made accordance for a May 20th CD release; right in time for our appearance at The Maryland Death Fest!”

Drummer Thorgrimm had this to say about Dark Descent Records:
“We are very lucky to find one of the hardest working labels out there right now! They may be a small upstart label but Matt’s work ethic and care in his bands and his label is impeccable! We are very confident that this release will reach far beyond our previous work and are very glad that Dark Descent Records is leading the way! HAIL HELL!”

Matt Calvert of Dark Descent Records had this to say:
“I was extremely intrigued to hear the new songs the band had come up with when I was approached by them to release the new album. What I heard was dedication to not only produce great songs but the ability to capture the true spirit of metal. Dark Descent Records is very excited to be a part of When All Roads Lead to Hell.

Mike Abominator continues: Gravehill are also very happy to announce that When All Roads Lead to Hell will also see a 12″ vinyl release with Chaos Records! Our friend Victor Hernandez Gil made us an offer we couldn’t refuse, and seeing this release on vinyl is very important to Gravehill! Look for its release in early July 2011!”

Mike on Chaos Records: “We needed a connection that could help us outside the U.S. So the plan was to build a strong team of death that could help us spread our plague worldwide. Victor and Chaos Records were our first choice to attack down in Mexico. We have the utmost respect for the Mexican metal fans and look forward to infecting even more down there! It was a great surprise that Victor also had connections set up in Europe as well, so we killed 2 posers with one stone so to speak! Europa will also be infected now! Hail Victor and Chaos Records for being a part of our Horde of Death!”

Victor Hernandez Gil of Chaos Records states:
“It’s great to welcome Gravehill to the Chaos Records Familia, we cannot wait to release the vinyl version of When All Roads Lead to Hell. Gravehill have developed themselves over the past few years as one of the most exciting live acts in the American Metal scene. Many thanks to Gravehill for their trust in Chaos Records! Horns up!!”

When All Roads Lead to Hell will be out on May 20th (with the vinyl treatment coming in July).