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ENTRAILS
Grip Of Ancient Evil

Hammerheart (2025)
Rating: 7/10

Sweden’s Entrails is one of those reliable death metal bands that never let you down. Thrills are rare, but if you like steady meat n’ potatoes grunting then Grip Of Ancient Evil, just like the band’s previous seven albums, is worthy of your time. Even so, Entrails are not essential listening, but this new opus is the first to feature Nazghor frontman Julian Bellenox, who takes over vocal duties from Pontus Samuelsson.

As expected, Grip Of Ancient Evil still likes to throw its weight around, even if it’s familiar flab. Drifting in the same crushing realm as Grave and Dismember, the posse remains comfortable in certain tracks, although my favourite song here just happens to be the one which doesn’t feature Bellenox on lead vocals. Nifelheim, Friends Of Hell and Necrocurse dude Per “Hellbutcher” Gustavsson rips his throat out on the blackened styling’s of ‘Inner Demon’, where buzzsaw riffs are in abundance as Entrails still somehow manage to breathe some life into the old dog Swedish sound.

It’s a shame that the guys saved another corker until last with the volatile ‘Consumed By Insects’, which is arguably the most savage cut on offer. Elsewhere, it’s the Entrails we’ve all become accustomed to. ‘Fed To The Dead’ and ‘Wings Of Death’ are heavyweight bruisers, the latter opting for a thrashier combination. ‘Skin ‘Em All’ does a lot of foaming at the mouth, bringing to mind the rabid onslaughts of Bloodbath, so there’s always a consistent framework applied to the Entrails cacophony.

The band’s protective scaffolding houses delicious if at times generic HM-2 notions, but occasional forays into hefty doom (‘Hunt In The Shadows’) are always welcomed as skinsman Arvid Borg rattles skulls like no tomorrow. Bellenox’s vocals add an extra throaty nastiness, but most importantly an extra level of energy which results in a refreshingly engaging opus in spite of being riddled with the once again archetypal Swedish butchery. Long live rot n’ roll.

Neil Arnold

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