It doesn’t really happen that often anymore; but receiving such an unexpected record from a totally unknown band is still one damn pleasure.
Entrench hail from Sweden, and they have an awesome name and an even cooler logo. Now that’s rare for a new band, as all the cool-sounding “Metal” names seem to have been taken.
Entrench was born in 2006, and after a few line-up changes and obscure demos, the band's just released it’s first album, called Inevitable Decay, through the US-based Abyss Records.
First observation: the cover of the CD is strange, absolutely not your usual Thrash Metal art (apparently done by bassist Joel Sundin). The rest of the artwork is more conventional with live pictures of the band and the lyrics. I also like the nice purple color on the back of the CD, really reminds me of those old Thrash CDs I used to buy back in the 90s.
Some might find this artwork horrible, I think it's just fantastic
Musically speaking, Entrench is a Thrash Metal band, or should I say a Scandinavian Thrash Metal band.
When it comes to Thrash Metal, we usually mention the American scene and the German scene. And that’s pretty unfair in my opinion as the Scandinavian scene’s contribution to Thrash Metal is equally as important. Some speak of Black/Thrash (we’ll discuss this soon with an interview of the band Nekromantheon) or Death/Thrash, but at the end of the day, it’s nothing else but pure Thrash Metal to me.
Entrench's audience: who needs anther proof that this is pure Thrash?
The fact that Entrench come from Sweden means a lot though as it does influence their Thrash. In fact, the guys say it themselves: they play Thrash Metal with early Death Metal influences. And that’s absolutely correct, as listening to Inevitable Decay feels a little bit like listening to the first Swedish Death Metal bands. There is that particular feeling of emergency and insanity, just as if the musician’s lives were at stake. And that makes the music sometimes sound clumsy, particularly when it comes to leads. Now if you play in a Metal band, please do remember that sounding “clumsy” or not being technically sharp sounds nice when the music you’re composing is genuinely inspired, otherwise, you’ll just sound shitty.
Hey, that's a typical Death Metal Scenery!
Entrench’s Thrash is very sharp, aggressive, hysterical, very epic and so nicely composed. Each song contains tons of variations, different riffs, and cool melodies; in one word: that album is extremely DYNAMIC. A little bit like early US thrash, particularly bands like Forbidden who also play a “clinical” and complex kind of thrash.
To this, of course, you need to add the screamed vocals and that “Scandinavian Touch” making the music more aggressive, and very dark, just like your early Death Metal used to sound like.
All the 8 songs on this album are very cool, but 2 of them really caught my attention: “Portrait Of A Phobia” and “Where Only Ruins Remain”. Maybe coz’ they’re even more epic than the other songs.
All you need to remember is that if you like Thrash, than I really think you should check this band out. Their Thrash is authentic, original, and therefore different from all those hyped retro-thrash bands the bigger labels are trying to make you believe in.
To Entrench means "To provide with a trench, for the purpose of fotifying or defending". Watch out guys, these warriors are here to stay, and they are heavily armed.
Easily one of my favorite albums this year!
YATH
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