Customer Reviews

Wolverine Blues

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Blending the heaviness of death metal with the swagger of rock `n' roll, this album establishes the "death `n' roll" blueprint for future Entombed albums. To put it bluntly, this album crushes. Black Sabbath is a strong influence on the bluesy, midtempo grooves here. The production is perfect; the drums are punchy and resonant, and the guitars are heavy, yet clear. Sick wah-wah leads and guttural vocals round out this fearsome package. The songs are concise, and the arrangements are effective, and best of all, the album comes packaged with a comic featuring everyone's favorite X-Man, Wolverine.

This album was probably the experimental peak for Entombed. Though lacking the furious speed of their previous masterpieces, "Left Hand Path" and "Clandestine", "Wolverine Blues" brings in a slower, more developed sound that actually serves to highten the impact of the bands strengths rather than weaken them, sounding like a Black Sabbath meets Sepultura mish mash.
LG's vocals only sound more menacing when you can understand what he's saying, and the guitar work, while much slower paced than in previous efforts, does a much better job of showcasing the masterful fretwork that this band is known for. Lyricly, the songs presented in this selection display a maturity and depth not evident in "Clandestine" or LHP. "Heavens Die" and "Hollowman" in particular look just as good on paper as they sound in your stereo.
Unfortunatley, even Entombed can serve up the occaisional floater. "Blood Song" is just awful. Yuck. Hopefully, the guys will leave the vampire songs to Type O Negative in the future. LG sounds whiney, the lyrics are ridiculous, and the song seems to go on forever.
If you just can't live without a good neck-snapping tune, "Eyemaster", "Rotten Soil", and "Out of Hand" fill the bill nicely, being the three fastest songs on the disc and more closley resembling the bands earlier work.
Bottom line: If you're a deathmetal purist, in the vein of Morbid Angel or Cannibal Corpse, this isn't for you. If you enjoy slower paced, but equally heavy "sludge" metal, this album is a real winner, and definatley one of my all time favorites. If not for the incredibly awful "Blood Song", this would be five star effort.

When I first started listening to Entombed, I heard the song "You were Supposed to Rot" off of Left Hand Path and was instantly addicted to the band. Its because it had feeling to it and the aggressiveness in the album, it was enticingly real. Unlike many of the death metal acts I had heard on the past, they didn't simply focus their thoughts on songs trying to depict images of arcane skies. They instead strayed from topic to topic, from painting after brutal painting, inflicting an interesting diversity on the listener.
After that, the Hollowman E.P. came along, and it said something I was prepared for. It said that Marvel comics would bring the next full-length album to me and, honestly, I couldn't believe what it was saying.
A death metal act doing a "soundtrack" for a character in the marvel universe?
This couldn't be true.
O, but it was.

While pushing to become edgier, the normally conservative Marvel comics thought they needed a soundtrack to go along with X-Men's Wolverine. So, instead of going out and getting themselves of pop sensation or a piece of fluff, they decided to make an odd move and endorsed this album because of the song "Wolverine Blues." In that edition of this album, Wolverine is prominently displayed above a picture of what would normally be the album's cover, his claws aggressively rending the picture into scraps. Inside, there was an addition placed with the lyrics as well, a mini-comic of sorts entitled Just Don't Look In Its Eyes, showing the things that the song charismatically displayed. An engine of aggression and anger meeting a bear was shown, its pictures accented by a song with lyrics about someone "with an appetite for war always hungering for more," and a battle ensued. Thus, a picture was painted that indeed fit the song and the heavy beats echoing the thoughts of a growling voice.
But there's more.

The rest of the album, it wasn't some softcore batch of melodies done for comic code approval. No, it was a death metal album. With lines like "when your in hell you can talk to my voice" and "eggs will hatch within your head" (Rotten Soil)
mixing with "a matter of time, a matter of slugs, until the rats are fed" (Hollowman), it became obvious that Entombed was making what its fans were wanting, something with teeth, and that Marvel was sponsoring it. Driven sounds that went into what I would classify as heavy music mixed, with primal ideals and beats mixing with sometimes interestingly transcribed ideas. Yes, Marvel had purchased themselves a snarling sound, one that spoke of devils and murder and the not-so-stillborn cousin of happiness we all call loathing, and the land was green and good.

I've read some quite unintelligent reviews about this album on here. I won't mention any names, but it seems like a few people missed out on one of the best metal albums ever released by dismissing it because the lyrics weren't "hard core" enough. For a band from Sweden (I'm assuming English is a second language here) these lyrics are some of the best I have ever heard. Aside from the occasional usage of foul language, the lyrical songwriting is very intelligent in songs like Contempt, Hollowman and Out of Hand. This is not typical satan metal or gore metal with lyrics about evoking the devil or ripping people's limbs off, these lyrics actually have substance. As far as the music goes, this is perfection. There are no land speed guitar record riffs, no beat your head against the wall blasting drums and no incoherent glass gargling vocals. There are lots of chugging guitars, crunchy riffs and some exquisite drum work. Petrov's vocals are tough, but not cheesy. This album, along with both Swansong and Heartwork by Carcass, and Wickerman's self titled debut, are about the only albums that have this same kind of groove. Thats unfortunate because this is a formula that really works well, and in the overcrowded genre of death metal, this is a breath of fresh air. Granted this album is almost 13 years old, it still sounds fresh.

I bought this album when I was 9 because it had a picture of wolverine on it. Solid decision. This was the second album I bought after Toad the Wet Sprocket.

This album is an exceptional piece of work from our favorite Swedish harbingers of doom. An incredible example of how high quality engineering can realy put the finishing touches on a top notch thrash metal track. This album hits you like a wall of roaring, head pounding fury from start to finish, with tunes such as Eyemaster, Wolverine Blues, and Out of Hand driving it all home. A must have for any intelligent metal head who demands more than just furious speed from his bands. These guys have talent to spare and aren't shy about showing it off.

This is a real heavy metal record, not one of those faux-metal bands that suck. This record is pure aggressive death metal with some punk influences {not as much punk as later releases}. This is probably their best record. If you like this also get "Deadly Fairytales" by Gandalf.

That was my reaction after hearing one second of "Rotten Soil". They come on you and don't stop. This album is hard for me to describe. From the song titles, you would be expecting a death metal band. The music is almost as heavy as some death metal but it is FUN. Don't just walk away, it's MUCH MUCH heavier than 70s party rock but if you find yourself moshing and dancing at the same time, say I told you so. The vocals are semi-screamed. If I were to categorize "Wolverine Blues", I would say "death'n'roll". It is heavy and comes straight at you but is more accessible than Cannibal Corpse, never mind Nile. That does not mean it isn't heavy. But, just listen because it is not possible for me to describe it further. I have not heard any other Entombed although I have heard great things about "Left Hand Path".

This is some seriously heavy music, a mix between death metal and good old rock 'n' roll; surprisingly, this combination works very well. While the tracks are somewhat similar, they're all good, with the stand-outs being "Contempt, "Heavens Die," and "Out of Hand."

Basically, the first song is Eyemaster which is fast, and it's probably the first clip you've clicked on. I have to say that aside from Rotten Soil and Out Of Hand, the other songs are a little slower. If it's speed you want, check out earlier albums such as Left Hand Path and Clandestine.

However, this is still a good album, and what it has that the aforementioned albums don't have is variety. Not in style, they're all heavy metal songs - but it's a lot easier to differentiate between the different songs. Add to that a more unique style, mixing death-metal with rock n' roll to create their own death n' roll formula, which gives this album a more original feel. If you like more sludgy stuff then this is definately the album for you. And even if you don't, it's still worth checking out coz even though I personally feel that the faster albums are better, I still listen to this quite a bit as well. Good album, not great in my opinion, but cetainly one that would make any band proud to have written.