After reigniting the Swedish death metal revival with 2 albums of Dark Descent Records, Entrails moved to Metal Blade and released Raging Death and Obliteration, the latter of which saw a line up change  as long time guitarist Mathias Nilsson left, replaced with youngster Penki Samuelsson and it showed with a solid but underwhelming effort.

Well, World Inferno sees yet more line up shuffling around stalwart founder Jimmy Lundqvist, but this time for the better as  bassist/vocalist Tommy Carlson (ex Visceral Bleeding ex Istapp) and drummer Martin “Fjalar” Mikaelsson (Istapp, ex Unchained) have appeared to re energized Lundqvist  and it has resulted in the bands best album since the Dark Descent releases.

As you’d expect, the Dan Swano mix/master is absolutely huge and ridiculously heavy and even in today’s HM boss pedal explosion, it stands out. But unlike Obliteration which fell short on the actual songs, World Inferno is chock full of damn killer tunes that are far more than just a killer production. Right from the fucking chorus /riff of the opening title track, it’s clear Lundqvist is back in top form and tracks like “The Soul Collector”, “Dead and Buried”, “Insane Slaughter” and “The Hour of the Casket” are fucking thunderous as all get out and catchy as heck with the classic Swedish gallop and trots in spades.

A couple of numbers, “Into Eternal Fire”,  start of “Hour of the Casket” and varied/atmospheric  closer “The Blood Breed”  slow things down to more of a hefty trundle but boy does that guitar tone make them everso fucking heavy. Seriously is there  better moment in death metal than when a single guitar cranks out a riff with that mid range buzz and is joined later to rattle your teeth? The 41 second mark of ‘Into Eternal Fire” says FUCK NO!.

Admittedly, the likes of Sentient Horror, Fatalist, Skelethal, Interment, Abscession, Brutally Deceased and others have kept the throne warm for the last couple of years, But Entrails are here to claim it back and remind everyone that they are arguably the reason the genre exploded again back in 2010 and still the top dog on the block when it comes to this style.

[Visit the band's website]

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