Ahh… just thinking about Entombed dredges up all sorts of sensations for me: anger, ecstasy, exasperation, and more than anything else, the primal urge to bang my fucking head. Their early records were phenomenal slabs of Swedish death metal; their sound was blistering, merging crushing detuned rhythms with blazing solos and guttural vocals.

Those days are long past: they did a complete headspin on their 3rd record by injecting a dose of bluesy groove. With Wolverine Blues they effectively invented the “Death-n-Roll” genre, pissing off a lot of their original audience but attracting legions of new fans in the process. They’ve got balls; you have to give them that. After some of their later ‘90s material strayed towards “alternative” butt-rock, Entombed wised up and pulled their shit together, resulting in a string of albums beginning with Uprising that have consistently gotten better.

And now they’re ready to unleash their next onslaught on some unsuspecting ears. Their new album, titled Serpent Saints, is scheduled to land on July 31. You might ask yourself, “What’s a serpent saint?” Shouted in the thickest, meatiest Swedish voice you’ve ever heard, Entombed reply: “WE ARE SERPENT SAINTS!” which doesn't seem like much of an answer, but fuck it.

Candlelight Records USA have posted the title track on their myspace page (hint: it's the one marked “Entombed”). It’s a decent track once you get past the piano intro, but man, those vocals are throaty; perhaps too gnarlicious for the weak-of-heart. I’m eager to hear the rest of the album as the early reports have been positive. Metalkult provides the essential details:

Here’s some funny live footage prefaced with Swedish shouting: