A lot happened inside legendary Entombed last times. Struggle between Alex and LG leaded to splitting the band into two caps- Entombed (team Hellid) and Entombed A.D. (team Petrov). Let me take a closer look of the debut album of the second band.
“Back to the front” is a quintessence of all previous records. We’ve got here every single element, that made that swedish group so unique- from heavy and dirty guitar sound, great Petrov’s vocal (still got it, this voice is age immune!), rock’n’roll elements, some dark riffs or let’s just put in one word- it’s still Entombed. Generally they’re around “Wolverine Blues” or “Inferno” period, but also they go a bit more into their roots. Choosing “Pandemic Rage” as a promotional song from this album was just perfect- not only because it’s the best composition here, but also this track shows us both- death’n’roll and classic death facet of that record. Everything here is boosted by some groove (“Morning Star” times comes back a bit). ...and that’s not even all influences here. Check out “Bedlam Attack”- a lot of inspirations from d-beat/crust (but it’s not a surprise, it’s Sweden, right?) middled with majestic, heavy and evil part.
So as I mentioned earlier- we’ve got here all characteristic elements, that made Entombed so great band in one piece. Even if this album isn’t that groundbreaking as “Clandestine’ of “Left Hand Path” it’s still solid piece of metal, proving that Entombed A.D. is a strong band. It’s their best album since “Uprising”. So bad news to Alex Hellid- guys are still going really good. No one should care about that “A.D.” in the name- it’s still good, old Entombed.

Wojciech Michalak