Review Summary: I! I WANNA RIDE! GOD ON MY SIDE! Or something. I dunno man, this was a real disappointment. Sad face.
Entombed is one of my favorite bands, but wow, they've had a lot of dumb moments. Wolverine Blues suddenly placed in simple drum beats and guitar patterns to create a sound dubbed as death n roll, a genre that has been either loved or hated. To Ride saw an even larger progression away from extreme death metal and more chuggy heavy metal, but Same Difference completely abandoned the metal genre all together for just a bland Soundgarden ripoff. I'm seriously not sure who they were trying to appeal with that one but nobody accepted it. Since then, Entombed has been sitting in a swamp of mediocre death-ish metal, grunge, and groove metal and LG Petrov has done a lot of forgettable things in his career and Entombed AD will, upsettingly, be one of them.
Rather than the excitable rebirth, the majority of Back to Front could have come straight from Morning Star or Inferno. That's certainly not a bad thing, as we are greeted the same mid-paced, crushing groove and sledgehammer intensity that was so brutally awesome in Entombed's later era, but where those albums had a few moments basking in upbeat, some badass rhythms, Back to the Front seems to have trouble moving past the mid-paced crunch. The production reminds me of the thick and meaty job that was on Inferno: the guitars are crunchy as hell and the rhythm section is pounding, while LG Petrov dominates the album with his trademarked throat torn shouts and growls, more so new era than old. The band uses the same staunch riffing and interjection of melodic licks that abounded in their recent work, creating a heavy and bludgeoning tone. Songs like Pandemic Rage and Digital Medius will roll you over with their heavy-handed, sauntering swagger while Vulture and the Traitor and Bait and Bleed focus more on a rollicking crunch with dips into that old school punk attitude of yore. Despite the name change and splintered line up, Back to the Front is business as usual.
The riffage is alright but it all seems recycled from the way better Wolverine Blues or Morning Star. The three first songs on the album showcase the band perfectly: Kill To Live is an attempt at a pompous opener (think of Chief Rebel Angel), Bedlam Attack is a slightly more rumbling mid-tempo song and Pandemic Rage speeds into old-school. The rest of the album is the same. These three different paces go back and forth between songs for 51 minutes - waiter, check please. If it ain't broken, don't fix it and there's nothing really wrong with Entombed A.D, they're just getting old and the engine sounds like it needs a good rest. The whole album reek of if Wolverine Blues were an old aged governor once muscular and shining but now wrinkled and flabby who is trying to get back into the action. I'd hoped the band would've taken some chances too, especially now that Hellid is gone, you'd think they'd want to show the world they don't need him. Sure some songs like The Underminer - fastest one on the record - will no doubt fit the set list, but just about every younger band is driving past these guys if they hadn't already. Nothing truly exciting happens, which is a damn shame man.
Those hoping for a return to the early days of Clandestine and Left Hand Path will be disappointed, no doubt. If you dig the thundering, crunchy groove of Morning Star and Inferno, you will definitely appreciate what Entombed A.D. has brought forth. I actually really love the mid paced catchy riffs from Wolverine Blues or To Ride, but there really isn't much diversity throughout. At the end of the album you're left knowing that it was a decent album but not really remembering much aside from that. In fact, I barely remember this album is called Back To The Front, I usually just call it Entombed AD. Yah, Entombed is Back To The Front? Not really.
