Bear with me me here…….. back in 1992, whilst in college, I read in Pitch Weekly ( a free, alternative Kansas City paper) , that Entombed were playing at a local VFW. Of course, I was going, so that night, I loaded up up beers and other substances and headed out with a friend. Well, we got lost in Downtown Kansas City and could not locate the venue (this is pre google maps of course). Subsequently, I missed the show, came back to the fraternity house, where I proceeded to destroy my room, destroy my roommate and try to fight anything that moved. I was basically then barricaded in my room until my then girlfriend now wife, was summoned to talk me down.

Why do I tell you this? Well, that was arguably by one and only shot at seeing one of my bucket list bands in their prime, play the classic material from the first 2 albums, as its been well documented since, the band’s musical ups and downs, legal issues, “A.D’s” and so forth. And thusly, ever since that day, I’ve resented missing that show and my bucket list remains unchecked. But thanks to Threeman recordings, I can sort of check it off.

Back in 2016, on the 25th anniversary of the release of Entombed’s second legendary album, Clandestine, the full album was performed by the Malmo live concert orchestra in a live special event. In a second, separate concert, the same night, the band (well, 3/5ths of the original lineup) performed Clandestine live it its entirety. The whole of both sets was captured on CD and DVD and released in  special crowd funded, limited edition set (which I recently acquired), but Threeman Recordings is re-releasing the second, orchestra-less part of the concert with a larger distribution and release as a stand alone CD/LP, I’m guessing in part, to promote the band’s recent announcement they are recording new music, as fans probably already own the original CD/DVD set.

So what we have here is original members Alex Hellid, Uffe Cederlund and Nicke Andersson joined by Richard Anderson ( Morbus Chron) and bassist Edvin Aftonfalk (ex Morbus Chron) performing Clandestine from start to finish.   Now, I’m trying not to re-review Clandestine, as its place in metal lore is cemented, but to hear this seminal album played so tightly and so perfectly is a sight to behold (or hear at least on this version). To hear  such genre defining moments like “Living Dead”, “Sinners Bleed”,  classic stomp during “Evilyn”, thunderous opening of “Crawl” or menacing slow burn of “Through the Colonnades”  gives me goosebumps, and with such a intimate, tight environment (a concert music hall) and recording set up (5.1 dolby) , rather than a bar or a stadium, it sounds amazing. And as a bonus, the band perform the title track from their debut Left Hand Path, arguably the greatest death metal song ever written  (and the soundtrack to that fateful night in my room back in college), and it still give me chills, so while I never heard it live, this finally kinda counts in my book.

Hellid and Cederlund’s guitars are punchy and suitably buzzing, and Andersons’ drums are as loud and powerful as they are on the original album. Anderson’s vocals are an suitable fill in for Andersson’s vocals on the original release, though her gets a bit behind on the faster parts (i.e “Chaos Breed”, “Severe Burns”) and I’m confused as to why Orvar Säfström, who performed on the band’s Crawl EP and performs during the orchestral portion of the performance, wasn’t used, but I digress. The whole things is as you’d expect from a  bunch of veterans playing a classic album, it’s tight and enjoyable but with all the little finite subtleties of a live performance, but if you already own the previous CD/DVD set, there is nothing new or additional, this is an exact copy of the 2016 show, 2017 release, so there’s really no reason to get this other than collector purposes.

With these guys AND Dismember supposedly getting back together and releasing new music, I hope I can truly check off my bucket list and here’s to hoping I don’t get lost and miss the show again…..

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