Despite years of making above average
heavy metal
in the underground,
Entombed
never had a chance to break into the mainstream. This most likely reflects on their
death metal
past, which provided excellent but decidedly uncommercial music. Time will tell, but
Morning Star
will hopefully be ranked with
Slayer
's
Reign in Blood
,
Sepultura
Chaos A.D.
, and
Pantera
Vulgar Display of Power
as some of the finest
thrash metal
ever made. Vocalist
L.G. Petrov
really comes into his own on this album; his vicious roar has never sounded as clear and focused as it does here. And chief songwriters
Uffe Cederlund
and
Jorgen Sandstrom
cut away the excess fat and created some truly memorable riffs and lyrics.
"Chief Rebel Angel"
comes flying out of the gates with a mountain of guitars and a raging
Petrov
railing against God and praising Lucifer like no one has since
Deicide
's first album.
"Bringer of Light"
is a thick, heavy number that shows off the twin guitar assault of
Alex Hellid
.
"Year One Now"
provides a truly classic
metal
moment as
shrieks, "Kill! Kill! Kill! Die! Die! Die!" with a passion that is rarely displayed in this genre. And the awesome
"Mental Twin"
closes the album like
Godzilla
stomping through Tokyo; the deliberate pace and incredible guitar work brings this closer to
Black Sabbath
territory than they ever have ventured before. The best part of the whole affair is there is not a single boring (or even average) track on the whole album, and
's show-stealing performance really does make this a fantastic
album. The band also maintains their high standard of lyric-writing; they may sing about
Satan
, but they do not take the lame-brained approach of their contemporaries.
really stepped up to the plate; few
bands can survive longer than ten years and still make excellent albums. Hardcore
fans may not always enjoy
's approach to the genre, but this is the true successor to 1994's fan-friendly
Wolverine Blues
. Any fan of quality underground
should find this to be a superb effort from an underrated band. ~ Bradley Torreano