Review: Entrench ”Through the Walls of Flesh”

Entrench – Through the Walls of Flesh

Raw Swedish Thrash Metal in on the rise in Västerås, a city in central Sweden located around 100km northwest of the capital Stockholm, thanks to the vicious new album by Thrash Metal act Entrench, a lethal piece of extreme music sure to pierce its way straight to hearts of both puritans and connoisseurs titled Through the Walls of Flesh. In the bands own words, the new album should be seen as “an example of pure energy and a way of channeling that humanity’s deserved doom is drawing near”, and after listening to their unrelenting music we’ll all have to agree with their acid words.

Formed in 2005, Entrench have already released two full-length albums prior to Through the Walls of Flesh in their solid career, those being Inevitable Decay in 2011 and Violent Procreation in 2014, but it’s with the new album that this talented power trio comprised of Fredrik Pellbrink on vocals and guitar, Joel Sundin on bass and Mats Blyckert on drums has reached their most visceral stage to date. Unlike so many “heroes” of the 80’s, who turned more polished with every successive release, Entrench continued to push borders and refused to succumb to any trends whatsoever, resulting in the sonic onslaught of raw and dirty sounds emanating from their new album.

A calm and melancholic intro titled ”The Coming Storm” warns the listener a war is about to begin, matching the song’s name perfectly before the Swedish power trio gets into the battle armed with their instruments, blasting old school, dirty Thrash Metal with hints of Death Metal in the second part of the song, ”Dawn of War”, with Fredrik’s vocals sounding demented and rabid, always supported by his own crude riffs and Mats’ frantic drumming. ”Enter the Fray”, the second track of the album, is just as violent and pungent, with the drums by Mats sounding so primeval and brutal they end up increasing the song’s hostility to a whole new level, while Fredrik barks and slashes his guitar nonstop. Furthermore, Joel delivers those lowering, metallic notes we love in Thrash Metal through his bass, making things even more thrilling. Putting the pedal to the metal, the trio fires a berserk sounding perfect for some demonic circle pits and savage headbanging in ”Iron Coffin”, one of the best tunes of the album where Fredrik sounds insanely heavy on both vocals and guitar, not to mention the flammable beats by Mats.

”Dead End” brings forward traditional Thrash Metal with all elements we love such as its frantic shredding, unstoppable and very rhythmic drumming, choleric vocals, and so on. Put differently, simply fuel yourself up with a cold beer and head into the mosh pit to this electrified tune, where once again Joel offers the listener some sick, roaring bass sounds. And as if the band didn’t want to give us a single second to breathe, they fire another top-notch thrashing hymn entitled ”The Warmonger Sacrament”, where Fredrik, Joel and Mats are in absolute sync, therefore resulting in sheer awesomeness and extreme aggression; followed by White Light Precedes Black Rain, drawing influences from traditional Death Metal due to its darker and denser base, with the riffs by Fredrik and the boisterous drumming by Mats stealing the spotlight. Lastly, we have ”Fragments / Shadow of Death”, which just like the opening tune of the album is an 8-minute metal attack with a lighter intro that quickly morphs into an obscure extreme music feast. However, it’s not as thrilling as the rest of the album, despite getting just as fast and demented halfway through it, with the music marching to a desolate and harsh ending.

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