Entombed

With Morning Star, Sweden's legendary Entombed have once again proven they do indeed have life left in them. Morning Star is very much on the same path that last year's powerful Uprising album was: treading speedy, aggressive death metal with a light-hearted, punk-style, middle-fingered attitude flying high. The album also features some riffs that could have come straight off of Left Hand Path, their debut album. "People say we're going back to the old days a little bit," says vocalist L.G. Petrov. Was this a conscious decision after the disastrous Same Difference album? "No, we don't think that 'we've got to back to the roots,' that wasn't the intention. We were just comfortable with it." Looking back on Same Difference, what does Petrov think about the album of ill repute now? "I haven't heard it in quite a while," he laughs. One of the brilliant things about Morning Star is the combination of talented, crunching death metal and a light-hearted, ironic approach to the artwork and some of the lyrics, eschewing death metal's notorious perma-scowl attitude for something a bit more enjoyable. "We have thrown in punk and stuff like that to make it more interesting, but we're still a death metal band," says Petrov. Unlike lots of popular death metal stalemates, Entombed manage to spice up their death metal with enormous amounts of energy, attitude and Slayer-esque thrash riffing, of which Morning Star has no shortage. Considering Entombed was one of the first Swedish metal bands, one wonders what Petrov thinks of Sweden's metal scene today? "I like the Haunted, and... the Haunted. I still like the older bands. I sound old," laughs Petrov. Entombed would like to tour North America soon, but the band has their hands full working in an upcoming ballet production for the Royal Swedish Ballet. Take that, Metallica: "They called us up and wanted to try something where we play Entombed music and ballet dancers are somehow going to dance to it," Petrov laughs. "They are going to be handing out earplugs to the opera audience!"