Though this review pertains to the '97 release of ENTOMBED's "To Ride, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth," it is appropriate to rewind a bit and preface this w a personal anecdote.  Four years earlier, in my early teens, I had started to expand my metallic palette.  SLAYER was the impetus and as time went by, my curiosity and insatiable urge for heaviness grew both symbiotically and exponentially.

I'll never forget the day I walked into the local used record store with a few dollars burning a hole in my pocket.  Luckily, that could afford me a couple of cassettes and I quickly grabbed "Wolverine Blues".  That release was a legitimate game changer for me with its new paradigm of Death 'n Roll.

Fast forward to 1997 and ENTOMBED released "To Ride, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth," a formidable opus of absolutely banging tunes.  In February of 1998, I was fortunate to make a four-hour trek with my friend Joel to Ground Zero in Spartanburg, SC to see the band perform live.  Coincidentally, that was the first interview I had ever done.  Though I was barely 19 and extremely green, L.G. and Jörgen were extremely generous and gracious with their time.  That experience left an indelible mark upon me and was the catalyst for the adventures in writing that I still enjoy embarking upon to this day.

Focusing specifically on "To Ride...," as its twenty-fifth anniversary is now at hand, the album will be rereleased July 15, 2022.  While naysayers and purists deride the band for progressing beyond "Left Hand Path" and "Clandestine," "To Ride..." is a logical next step.  Simply put, once ENTOMBED had injected their Death Metal with the sudsy surge of MOTORHEAD, the voracious energy of VENOM, and a motley milieu of Punk and Hardcore, there was no turning back.

The title track opens the album up with a rowdy, raunchy groove.  The chugging that lays the foundation for the song is irresistible.  With a commanding presence unlike any other in Death Metal, L.G. belts out, "I wanna ride, gun in my hand, God on my side" during the explosive chorus.  Greeted with the rumbling distorted bass that perfectly augments the sludgy guitars, one cannot help but lose oneself with the infectious call to arms!

Followed like a double-jab from Mike Tyson, "Like This with the Devil" erupts in a bombastic fashion only ENTOMBED can deliver.  The band entered the ring twenty-five years ago with a bludgeoning, emphatic message to the haters.  As delivered by L.G., "what good is a song for peace when the fucker doesn't even rhyme?"

The production can certainly be likened to that of "Wolverine Blues" though it as if everything is louder, nastier, and injected with street-fighting vitriol.  The addition of Jörgen Sandström on bass, formerly of fellow Swedish Death Metal giants GRAVE, increases the overall intensity ubiquitously.  There is just something about the way the low, grinding bass melds with the HM-2 guitars that increases the overall intensity of the music.  Of course, Nicke's drumming caters its swinging, almost-Jazz-like style to keep the songs in constant, perpetual, if not unpredictable motion.

Another standout track from the album is the ninth, "Damn Deal Done".  Beginning with a just plain dirty pentatonic line that could have been a C.O.C. riff, the song soon takes off into a virgin stratosphere of grooving goodness.  Hearing a song such as this, it is hard not to wonder what folks like Hendrix would say about the evolution of their legacy.  Undoubtedly, he would not have been disappointed.

The added bonus to this review is my memory of having seen the band live on this tour.  If I remember correctly, HATEBREED was scheduled to open the show but had to cancel; however, even their pummeling Hardcore would be no match for the refined retaliation running through the veins of these Swedes.  What resounds ever so clearly about that experience was how much heavier the band sounded live than on the album.  So very often, the opposite has been the case with shows, but ENTOMBED never fails to deliver exceedingly more than bargained for.

Credit must be given where it is due and giving ENTOMED accolades comes with a pair of equally pertinent points.  First, the band invented a new genre by spearheading Death 'n Roll.  Had ENTOMBED not set down that path, the world would be blessed with the music of bands like THE CROWN, later GOREFEST, and KVELERTAK.

The final point to be made is that the world lost a master with the passing of L.G.  The man's veins had an ever-flowing stream of Heavy Metal.  When performing live, his vocals were often just as loud when the microphone was not in front of his mouth - truly, his voice was just that powerful!  His gregariously gargantuan lungs breathed new life into a genre that, by the mid '90s, had begun to grow stale and stagnate.

"To Ride..." marked the next logical progression for ENTOMBED.  Its huge, anthemic choruses blended with the raw grime conjured forth from rampant drumming and down-tuned overly distorted guitars and bass.  While purists may choose to skip this release, they are the ones truly missing out.  ENTOMBED, with L.G. at the helm, blew up the Extreme Metal scene with the bombastic, reckless abandon only they could deliver.  Your collection deserves this masterpiece.