ENTRAILS is a four-piece Death Metal band from Linneryd, Sweden. The current band is the second iteration of the group, forming in 2008 and have released a total of six full-length records since. The original version existed for a time in the 90's but due to never feeling satisfied with demos, never officially released anything. Their sixth release, "Rise of the Reaper", was released on October 11th of this year.

Of the album's thirteen tracks, two are instrumentals. One intro track and one outro track. The album kicks into gear with the second track "For Hell" which I almost immediately make note of the similarities to fellow Swedish death metal veterans, AT THE GATES. The vocals of Pontus "Penki" Samuelsson in particular are reminiscent of Tomas Lindberg. The fifth track, "In the Shape of the Dead", has some fantastic double bass blast beats from Brynjar Helgetun which makes the song stand out as a powerhouse track on the record. The eighth track, "Destruction", starts off with a fat bass riff before an absolutely shredding guitar solo comes in. Being one of the shorter songs on the record, coming in at only two minutes and forty-two seconds long, it keeps the energy high and the record moving briskly. The last track on the record (which isn't the outro), "Cathedral of Pain", slows things down nicely and for a doom metal fan like me, this is a fantastic choice of versatility. The song is the longest on record at seven minutes and thirty-eight seconds long. It serves as a beautiful death/doom style track to end the record on a high note.

Throughout the album, the songs are kept short with only one breaching into the seven-minute territory, but that's exactly the type of pacing I want in a death metal release. The songs are catchy; guitar riffs are memorable with choruses that you can almost sing...err...growl along to. This band definitely struck a chord with me with the similarities to AT THE GATES, I'm looking forward to seeing what else this group of musicians may have in store for us in the future.