It was a beautiful October day, a Friday in fact, perfect for a road trip to Italy. Somewhere out toward Treviso. That’s where Sweden’s Entombed A.D., or more precisely one of the two working versions of the once-whole Entombed, stopped off on a joint tour with Polish death metal legends Vader.
The Revolver club, out in the industrial zone of San Dona DI Piave, really surprises with its bookings. One night you get jazz and rock fusion stars like Simon Phillips, Stu Hamm or Greg Howe, another night rockers like The Dead Daises, then cult speed metallers Anvil or Finland’s zombie clowns Lordi, and there’s plenty of room in the schedule for the extreme corners of heavy metal too. This time was no different.
Both cult death metal acts have played on Slovenian soil quite a few times and are old, familiar faces, so there were no big surprises to expect. The biggest draw, really, was the announcement that Vader would play all of their first three albums, one after the other, in full. That obviously didn’t happen, but at least the setlist put the emphasis on tracks from those cult studio records.
We were late to the venue, so Mortuary had already finished their set, and the handful of people there were being entertained by Italy’s Resumed. It’s a quartet playing a kind of metal with progressive lines in the old-school, complicated Dream Theater vein, plus death metal growls. In other words: technically convoluted, with a good few theatrically melodic passages, which Italians love, and a satisfyingly punchy growl. A confident, likeable warm-up, then.
With Entombed A.D. you pretty much know what you’re getting. Setting aside the fact that there’s another version of the band running under the name Entombed, which also thrills with its shows, Entombed A,D, loaded their set heavily with Entombed classics, the ones where the voice on the Entombed albums belonged to the charismatic, cheeky, incredibly entertaining and lovable vocalist Lars Goran Petrov. In Entombed A.D., active since 2014, LG rounded up some ex-Enombed buddies with considerably shorter tenures: Olle Dahlstedt (drums), Nico Elgstrand (guitar) and Victor Brant (bass), while an extra guitarist, Guilherme Miranda, helps out on tour.
That rolling death n’ roll, led by “staggering puppy” LG, who snarled and croaked like mad as he dragged his growl up from his toenails, delivered a phenomenal stroll through the iron-clad catalog of Entombed classics. In between, Entombed A.D. slipped in four new original songs, including the brand-new single Fit For A King, which quietly heralds the upcoming album, plus the tried-and-tested, confidently hitting Midas In Reverse, Second to None and Dead Down, but otherwise, as said, they sharpened the set with a flinty crew of Entombed favorites that the crowd greeted eagerly. The massive Stranger Aeons, soon followed by Eyemaster, then Linving Dead and Out Of Hand, kept the energy excellent with superb playing and LG’s growl, and then the crowd really woke up when the band launched into the expected Revel In Flash, which announced a hellish entrance into the closing stretch. In quick succession they lifted the show to its closing peak with Wolverine Blues, Left Hand Path and the finale, Supposed to Rot.
A great new experience with a seasoned, unbelievably tight band, with the mischievous Lars Goran keeping the mood good and cheerful the whole way through. He fired up the crowd with all sorts of jokes and teasing remarks, and among other things cooled his hands on a pipe exhaust that was blowing mist onto the stage. Entombed fans got their money’s worth, but keep in mind there’s another Entombed out there that will have to be checked out too. Live, of course. Then we’ll know which of the two versions is better.
The night’s headliners, Vader, have had an unchanged lineup since 2011. The crew is led by chieftain Piotr Wiwczarek (growl, guitar), with Marek Pająk (guitar), Tomasz “Hal” Halicki (bass) and James Stewart (drums) keeping him company. Back in January, when they played before Kreator at CUK Kino Šiška, they impressed with a full performance of their debut “The Ultimate Incantations”, but this time, for their 35th anniversary, they went even further to please the old fans. Half the setlist was devoted to the first three albums, they added two tracks from the fourth, “Litany”, and with the exception of “Welcome to the Morbid Reich”, they played at least one song from every other album. There’s an incredible determination about Vader. The focus they bring to the stage. There wasn’t much talking between songs, practically none, but Vader once again took over with an outstanding performance, wrapped in an apocalyptic, dark, crushing atmosphere. Especially in the first part, Vader hacked through the classics without mercy. The club’s bigger stage let Marek move to the center or the right side several times, which successfully broke up the band’s apparent stiffness, since Piotr is permanently glued to the mic. The band plays a ton and you can feel it in the exceptional tightness, the stage relentlessness and, to some extent, the incredible ferocity. The two guitarists deftly trade solos, the rhythm section is locked-in and destructive, and a massive sonic wall of thundering riffs cuts straight into your guts. An hour and twenty minutes flew by in the blink of an eye. Vader raged mercilessly from song to song and put some 200 heads into a state of hypnosis!
Given past encounters with the band, it was to be expected that Vader would once again stun with their unique death metal cult. This time the meeting paid off even more, since we got a run of songs from the band’s early era, which Vader don’t play so often at their concerts in the new millennium. Brutality and mockery, through a theater of doom and destruction, are in no way lacking even in their mature years. They remain legends who, even in new times, breathe their creativity onto the stage to the fullest, and those magnetic field lines and that exceptional chemistry are by no means fading. Wiwczarek remains young at heart, incredibly devoted to what he creates (and has created), and still hungry for new challenges and triumphs. So the band absolutely convinced and conquered again, marking their big first 35 years with an outstanding setlist and a killer show.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
ENTOMBED A.D.:
1. Midas In Reverse
2. Stranger Aeons
3. Second to None
4. Eyemaster
5. Dead Dawn
6. Living Dead
7. Out of Hand
8. Fit for a King
9. Revel in Flesh
10. Wolverine Blues
11. Left Hand Path
13. Supposed to Rot
VADER:
1. Dark Age
2. Vicious Circle
3. Sothis
4. Silent Empire
5. Black to the Blind
6. Testimony
7. Kingdom
8. Fractal Light
9. Carnal
10. Wings
11. Epitaph
12. Never Say My Name
13. The Red Passage
14. Prayer to the God of War
15. Triumph of Death
16. Cold Demons
17. Helleluyah!!! (God Is Dead)
