Review Summary: Death N' GodDamn Roll
Here’s the really short story about “Wolverine Blues:” it’s one of the beastliest, manliest, most Goddamn badass metal albums ever. That should be sufficient enough to technically end this discussion right now and if you own a set of testicles go immediately download this album and experience what death metal sounds like when it isn’t tied down by pointless technicality/wankery, pants-sh*ttingly horrendous un-intelligible vocals, and the “omg we are trying really f*cking hard to look like Satanists TASTE OUR CRED” retarded imagery you see all over the genre. “Wolverine Blues” is about barbarous riffs, the kind that sound like the guitar player just savagely raped a brachiosaurus. It’s about ferocious vocals, as in “I just cannibalized a f*cking lumberjack” fierce. They’re relentless and roaring, and most importantly, they’re comprehensible. They allowed me to determine that singer Lars Gorath-Petrov says not only that he’ll suck your blood but that he’ll also f*ck it in the mighty “Blood Song,” in traditional death metal I would have to just assume he was screaming HAIL SATAN I JUST CUT MYSELF in some incomprehensible guttural roar.
Maybe this is pointless, because a lot of DM dudes will tell you Entombed sold out here and “Wolverine Blues” isn’t real Death Metal but Death N Roll, a term that needs no further explanation unless you like to uncontrollably bang pots and lick earmuffs while suffering from an advanced case of Downs. The concept of “selling out” is abundant in metal, sometimes the claims have merit (Metallica), sometimes they’re just rock-f*ck stupid (Entombed). “Wolverine Blues” has verses and choruses. It has vocals you can sing along to but will still put off anybody that isn’t at a least a 200 level in metal education. Every song is the soundtrack to a cutthroat Ape uprising. The last word of the album is a beastly roared “F*CK.” In short, it’s just Goddamn impressive. The bottom line is I really don’t give a sh*t if “Wolverine Blues” is as “tenants of the genre satisfying” br00tal as their debut, whatever Entombed is selling us here, regardless of the simply NEFARIOUS motivation to sell more records, I’m buying.
