Füneral Rain Press Cörps

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!

I’d like to introduce this edition of Conjuration of the Sepulchral by apologizing to the many avid readers who I’m sure have been left crushed and without direction by this column’s absence. Real life has been getting in the way of my illustrious career as a metal sage, but I’ve thought long and hard about my priorities and realized that shit’s overrated. Now back to the death metal.

This week we will be sampling a fine Swedish vintage with a very un-Swedish flavor. Gorement from Nyköping, Sweden. I have never seen them discussed in any magazine like Terrorizer, Zero Tolerance, or Metal Maniacs, or any larger metal site like blabbermouth or metal-rules.net, but they maintain a dedicated cult following among die-hard old school death metal fans. And for good reason; their only album, the magnum opus “The Ending Quest”, is a masterpiece of atypical melanchoic death metal.

Their style is hard to describe; Swedeath cliches are eschewed. No HM-2 pedal Left Hand Path Guitar tone, no d-beat drumming. A very strong sense of melody is present, but so are monolithic grooving death riffs. Hyperblasting madness flows seamlessly into gossamer melodies that evoke soltitude inspire contemplation. To me, the entire approach of Gorement conveys an ancient, inhuman sense of esoteric knowing and despair. It could perhaps be described as the reminiscing of an ancient entity that has seen the rise and fall of  countless gods and nations, and knows that all things good things come to an end. Check it out here, and buy Gorement’s “Darkness of the Dead” compilation or the vinyl re-issue of “The Ending Quest” from Necroharmonic Records.

US death metal pioneers Incantation have recently been added to the already stacked line up for this year’s Neurotic Deathfest, which runs April 29th & 30th in Tilburg, Netherlands. Drummer Kyle Severn gave the following statement:

“On behalf of myself and Incantation, we would like to announce that we have just been added to the greatest indoor European death metal fest line up that we have ever seen. Yes, I’m talking about this year’s Neurotic Deathfest in Holland. Incantation is honored to share the stage again with the almighty Autopsy, as well as the return of At The Gates, and other metal legends like Obituary, and new metallers of the 2K-era Hail Of Bullets. We plan to play a very obscure set in honor of this amazing line up and for our very supportive fans, old school and new alike. With a well rounded fest lineup bound together with leather and spikes, you will not want to miss this Incantation setlist, which is already a making in the metal history. We are riding the metal storm out with the same line up as we had this time last year when we successfully spread blasphemy across Europe during our headlining tour for the highly respected 7” EP Scapegoat with Alex Bouks (Goreaphobia, Master) guitars, Chuck Sherwood (Blood Storm) bass, John McEntee on guitar and vokills and myself skinsmans Kyle Severn on the drums….Kyle666″

Neurotic Deathfest 2011, featuring the likes of At The Gates, Autopsy, Obituary, Hate Eternal, Incantation and many more, is already shaping up to be the most brutal festival of the year. Keep checking in at www.neuroticdeathfest.com for information and updates.

Finnish death metal outfit Corpsessed has signed with Dark Descent Records for the CD release of their self-titled debut EP. Scheduled for an early 2011 release, the EP features six tracks of bludgeoning old-school death in the vein of Entombed, Incantation, Deicide, Immolation and Grave. Select tracks from the EP have been posted on the band’s official MySpace site, while more information on Corpsessed can be found on their Facebook page.

Corpsessed was spawned from putrescent slime in 2007, after the dissolution of an earlier project Skullfucker. Vocalist Niko Matilainen (Skullfucker), guitarist Matti Mäkelä (Tyranny, Wormphlegm) and drummer Jussi-Pekka Manner (Skullfucker, Pohjoinen Kuri) were joined by guitarist Jyri Lustig (Cardinals Folly) and the (de)composing of morbid death metal tunes began at the rotting houses of the Järvenpää delta-area.

The group’s original bass player Mikko Mäkelä disappeared in unknown circumstances, but was replaced in 2009 by Mikko Pöllä (Azure).

Look for Corpsessed‘s debut EP out soon on Dark Decent Records (CD only), with vinyl treatment coming courtesy of French label Ostra Records.