FRIDAY
With energy levels and festival excitement still high, quality acts such as Welsh black metallers Agrona, Norfolk thrashers Shrapnel, Liverpool doom/sludge merchants Conan, and a reinvigorated and retooled Evile invade the Sophie Lancaster Stage, decimating all before them. Birmingham grindcore legends Napalm Death complete the day’s entertainment with a reliably devastating set, the crowd gathered outside the tent almost as huge as the one inside.
Devastating news as legendary Death Metal vocalist Lars-Göran Petrov, formerly of Entombed and Entombed A.D., has died, losing his battle with bile duct cancer. He was 49. We brought you the news in 2020 that LG was diagnosed with terminal cancer and a GoFundMe was set up to help him.
Following the news that former Entombed and current Entombed AD vocalist Lars-Goran Petrov was diagnosed with incurable cancer, Converge announced they would be donating 100% of the earnings from their 2013 guest-filled Entombed covers EP to Petrov’s GoFundMe. The EP includes five covers of Entombed’s “Wolverine Blues” with a different vocalist on each one. The covers were originally recorded to be spliced together as one track on Converge’s 2012 split with Napalm Death, but the following year, Converge released each vocalist’s take as its own track on this EP. In addition to Converge’s own Jacob Bannon, Nate Newton, and Kurt Ballou, the vocalists include Aaron Turner (Isis, Sumac, Old Man Gloom), Kevin Baker (All Pigs Must Die, The Hope Conspiracy), and Tomas “Tompa” Lindberg (At The Gates, Disfear).Continue reading
With a musical heritage steeped in Indie, Alternative and Ska, Coventry has never really enjoyed a thriving metal scene. The birthplace of Cathedral and Bolt Thrower, the city has certainly contributed to the cause, but without a decent live venue for years, and with Birmingham just twenty miles down the road, most bands end up playing elsewhere. Even The Empire, the recently opened venue chosen for tonight’s darkest metal rumblings, boasts a “Ska Bar”.Continue reading
I have always had a lot of time and respect for Alexander Krull. Not only does he share a name with a vastly underrated and not at all terrible fantasy masterpiece (shut it, you…), but throughout his time as the main man of Atrocity he has constantly railed against just doing the straight up and normal, be that by releasing an eighties covers album about fifteen years before it was cool to do so, collaborating with darkwave könige, Das Ich, dark acoustic EP’s with Celtic folk singers, or by mixing massive Prong-ridden grooves with Death and Gothic metal on meisterstück, Blut (Massacre).Continue reading
In a post to their Facebook page Entombed A.D., featuring death metal legend Entombed’s front man LG Petrov, has been pulled from The Metal Alliance Tour, and are headed back to Sweden.
Entombed A.D.’s post to Facebook
Attention US headbangers! We got pulled of the U.S. Tour for reasons we don’t yet know. On our way to Sweden now. Never…
Posted by Entombed A.D. on Sunday, June 7, 2015
The Metal Alliance tour is headlined by Deicide and also includes Hate Eternal, Black Crown Initiate, Lorna Shore, and Svart Crown. No statement has yet to be released by the tour or the bands remaining on the bill.
Remaining Metal Alliance Tour Dates:
Jun 08: Metro Opera House – Oakland, CA
Jun 09: The Regent Theater – Los Angeles, CA
Jun 11: LVCS – Las Vegas, NV
Jun 12: Club Red – Mesa, AZ
Jun 13: Mesa Music Hall – El Paso, TX
Jun 14: Depot “O” Bar Live – Lubbock, TX (w/Deicide, Hate Eternal, Black Crown Initiate, Lorna Shore)
Jun 14: TBC – Houston, TX (w/Entombed A.D., Svart Crown)
Jun 15: Empire Garage – Austin, TX
Jun 16: Gas Monkey Live! – Dallas, TX
After months of fan speculation, the 5th annual Metal Alliance Tour has announced is line-up for 2015, which will be headlined by Deicide. Most often the Metal Alliance tours have had a genre theme to their line-ups and this years’ is decidedly death metal with Entombed AD, Hate Eternal, Black Crown Initiate and one more band TBA. Dates are said to run May through June with confirmed routing and on-sale information for tickets coming soon.
Press Notes:
Deicide to Headline The 5th Annual Metal Alliance Tour
The Metal Alliance Tour is proud to celebrate its 5th year anniversary of being of being one of the most anticipated metal tours of the year. Each year this touring festival assembles a package that celebrates the various genres of Metal. It is with great honor to celebrate this 5 year hallmark than to announce DEICIDE, the pioneers of the death metal as the official Metal Alliance Tour 2015 headliner.
The tour will be rounded out by Stockholm, Sweden natives ENTOMBED AD, Tampa’s own HATE ETERNAL, BLACK CROWN INITIATEand a band to be determined.
The Metal Alliance Tour will make the trek across United States and Canada starting on the east coast in May and ending late June. Confirmed dates and advance ticket sale info will be announce shortly. Poster artwork done by the truly talented Brian Mercer atwww.mercerrock.com
For more information please visit the Metal Alliance Tour website: www.MetalAllainceTour.com orwww.facebook.com/metalalliancetour
From humble beginning as Nihilist to the mega band of today, Entombed have forged a place in the metal elite to an extent that most bands can barely dream of. Little did we know when conducting this interview, that Entombed founding member, vocalist Lars (LG) Petrov was about to announce stepping out of the band and reforming in a new guise, Entombed A.D. Their latest album Back to the Front will be released under Entombed A.D, leaving original members Alex Hellid and Ulf Cederlund the old name and old material. Chatting with Ghost Cult magazine, Petrov talks about 23 years of death metal and everything Entombed had come to be known for over the years: hate, killing, Satan, and more hate.
It’s been 23 years since the release of left hand path, where do you find the inspiration from to keep writing after all this time?
Life. That’s what we were born to do. Every song is a step forwards so for me that’s what keeps us going. After 23 years still seems fresh. A newborn kid every day, every morning.
How do you keep your sound new with each album?
We don’t think that much about it, you do riffs and you put them together, your excited and you get goose bumps. That’s when you know it’s right; it sounds good. We just make it and record it. You can always do a song and then be picky and rearrange, you can do that for years without completing it so we just say ‘sounds fine, lets make it.’
Entombed is one of those bands that every death metal fan has heard of. How do you feel about your success over the years?
Yeah, it’s great. When we play shows there’s a lot of people turning up and they see that we have a good time on stage. We don’t see it as a routine. Every show and every album we do is because we love it. If it becomes routine it gets boring, but it hasn’t happened yet so that’s a good sign. We just do what we do, particularly now that it’s been 6 years between albums. I don’t know what we’ve been doing, we should have done one more album in between but we kept changing paths.
Despite being Swedish, you sing in English. Have you ever thought about doing an album in your native tongue?
No. I think that would sound ridiculous. Swedish doesn’t go well with death metal vocals. I’m going red just thinking about it actually.
You’ve just finished your 10th studio album, Back to the Front, how do you feel it turned out?
I think it turned out fucking great actually. When we started doing the songs that was about 5 or 6 months before we entered the studio. We were not distracted; we were just working fast and efficient. I like the songs and the sound of the album. The producer, Roberto Laghi, he didn’t want to change our sound drastically; he knew what we were after. He took the time to mix it his way but combine with the old school sound. I think it’s the perfect album for where we are right now.
Back to the front has obvious military connotations. Could you tell the readers what kind of lyrical ideas are running through this album?
Basically it’s the usual song ideas; killing with a little bit of Satan. There’s a great feeling of hate, positive hate, and there’s the total war theme. It’s up to the reader really, we can mean something with a lyric but it can mean something different to someone else. It’s a very open-ended interpretation. It’s hard to say what the lyrics mean for the songs because there are so many other opinions, so we leave it up to the listener.
There’s been a 6-year gap since your last album. Why such a long gap?
Yeah as I said this album is long overdue. We should have done at least one in between, but we’re actually getting older and time goes faster. Some members of the band have had kids so that’s why we’ve waited so many years, but we’ve been touring. Eventually we sat down and made a plan and just said ‘lets do this.’
The artwork for the album is very interesting. Tell us a little about it.
We found this great guy from Poland, Bielak, he’s done some previous artwork for Watain and Ghost so we asked him to do the album and he was really excited. We just gave him free rein basically. He came up with a drawing and we were like ‘OK, we’ll take it’. It looks good and that’s the cool thing about art, we don’t think about it that much, if it gets the result and we like it, we take it.
CAITLIN SMITH
Anybody who knows anything about death metal has heard of Entombed. Very few bands have broken out of the masses but this name has been propelled to legendary status. Despite maintaining an original lineup for almost 20 years, it’s been all change for Entombed recently. With a complete lineup revamp just two albums ago, and a split announced just before the release of their latest album leaving the original name to founding members Alex Hellid and Ulf Cederlund, the band is hardly recognizable from their original form. Rising from the ashes of Entombed, founding vocalist Lars (LG) Petrov adopts the title of Entombed A.D., but the question remains; can he possibly put out the same quality that he has become known for over the years? The answer is a resounding yes.
Back to the Front may have been a long time coming with Petrov’s last release, Serpent Saints, six years previous, but they have finally returned and the wait has been more than worth it. Back to the Front is a polished entanglement of melody and brutality. The sound has mellowed from their previous albums; the vocals are less harsh, almost sung, but 26 years on Petrov still has the voice to carry this off. There’s also a marked difference in the guitarist style. Rather than Serpent Saints where guitarist and co-producer Nico Elgstrand seems intent of fitting in with the older musical style, in this album he seems to be making his own mark on the sound, adding a heavier dose of melody into the mix.
The music has come a long way from Entombed’s original release, Left Hand Path. They’re not the young angry guys they once were, ripping their way through albums with devastating speed and aggression, but this doesn’t mean they can’t still pull out an outstanding album. I can’t say that initially I wasn’t disappointed by their lack of return to the old sound, but this album has forged its own distinct place. Although it is distinctly catchier in nature and unlikely to be listed among the greats, it’s still enjoyable proving that once again they are still putting a bit of death back into metal.
8/10
CAITLIN SMITH
Sweden is still a hotbed for talented bands and musicians. Enter Stockholm-based Colossus, a band that likes to keep the middle ground between prog and sludge metal. Their debut album, entitled Wake, is rather impressive. Ghost Cult caught up with Niklas Eriksson, the band’s guitarist/vocalist and mouthpiece.Continue reading