Vallenfrye : "Fear Those Who Fear Him"

I first heard about these guys while interviewing Louis from Goatwhore. I never gave them a fair listen even after they came so highly recommended by him. Now that I have it seems like a fairly simple concept to present...So members of Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride got together to worship Entombed. Granted this is an itch I get scratched in other ways Goatwhore being one of them, and the more obvious "Wolverine Blues" album the other. So I end up listening for moment that don't sound like Entombed as they are the more unique ones. The first of these is the doomier "Apathetic Grave" . There is a more death metal touch to what is going on. The guys do have a dense , dirty guitar sound that is raw as hell. The two minute "Nihilist" takes off with a more punk fueled grind-core speed. It really doesn't do a helluva a lot for me. The brief guitar solo is very Slayer.

There is more of a thrash groove to "Amongst the Filth". It's a dense heavy bull dozer of a song , but this much like the more punk fueled death metal of "Kill All Your Masters" fail to really connect with me aside from being a loud wall of guitar that blitzes by me. I guess its one of those things that makes it where Entombed either had to be your favorite band or you never heard of them in order for this to work. They are aggressive as hell. So if aggression is something you place high value on when it comes to metal then these guys are more than worthwhile. The forty second grindcore blast of "Dead World Breathes" is a longer song title than it is an actual song.

By the time we get to "Soldier of Christ" I am sure that the drummer is pretty solid , but like I say all the time if this is the kind of music you are going to play then your drummer can not be a joke. Where Entombed obviously beats these guys out is they have serious groove to the dense metallic slabs they used to hit you with. There is a darker turn on the very grim grind of "Cursed From the Womb" which is oppressive in the best way possible and is the album's song, as I am sold on it midway into things. So they guys are old pro's who should have been delivering like this the  whole time.  The reason is clear in "Temple of Rats" they just want to thrash it out at higher speeds that they don't get to use in their other bands and praise Entombed.

These guys are good at what they do and even show at times they can be great at it so I'll give this album an 8 though I have no plans to listen to it again though if raw Swedish flavored death metal is your thing then you can even round it up to an 8.5.