Entombed
Same Difference

As I'm sure you all know by now, Entombed have 'diversified' quite a bit. This basically amounts to two things, a major change in production and more Neurosis influenced songwriting. Opener 'Clauses' for example could easily be a Neurosis song. 'Jack Worm' is next, and it really shows quite how much they have changed, having virtually no guitar in the mix for much of the song - their bludgeoning heaviness of old is long gone. 'The Supreme Good' is like a flippin' Doom ballad, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Their previous 'death-n-roll' monicker had been replaced by 'doom-n-roll', a much cleaner version. None of this I'm writing is intended to be criticism, their change has indeed enabled them to expand their soundscape in a way they could have never achieved otherwise. It would have sucked if they'd got stuck in a rut for the next ten years.

'What You Need' is pretty close to traditional Entombed, but due to the production it sounds quite different. More praise goes to 'Kick In The Head', 'Same Difference', 'Addiction King', 'Smart Aleck', 'Close But Nowhere Near' and '20/20 Vision' - in fact, virtually the whole album! It's not an amazing album, but it's certainly a bold and interesting move.

Runemagick
The Supreme Force Of Eternity

In the early 90s, like many other people, I was quite into death metal. There were many great bands around at the time, and unfortunately quite a lot of shite as well. Runemagick's album may have been released in September 98, but the material on it was actually written before 1993, the glory days of death. They claim to be black / death metal so it's no shock that they've obviously somewhat reworked their older death material to add more of the black metal influences (particularly the drumming style) that have been present in more recent years. They sound a bit like a strange blend of NWOBHM, Obituary, and Hecate Enthroned.

While the 8 tracks on offer are not total shite, they're also not very interesting. There's very little in the way of melody and variety to keep you interested, summed up by the first track which plods along for the around eight minutes! I don't think they've got the best production either, the rhythm guitar sound is very unclear and confused, masking whatever underlying riffs are there.

Given the considerable experience these guys have in the industry I think they're probably capable of much more, and hopefully this will be shown when they ditch their (very) old material and start working from scratch on new tracks. I await their next album with anticipation...

Legenda
Autumnal

In an attempt at dark eerie beauty, Legenda have fallen way short of the mark.  Yes, there are moody keyboards and intricate medieval-esque guitar riffs, but the whole album lacks momentum and has a tendency to plod.

This album fails to grab your attention in any obvious way, even with growly shouty vocals.  Legenda lack the finesse and subtlety of   bands like Anathema who can capture your attention with a delicate, fragile atmosphere of melancholy beauty.  This band seems to be jumping on the bandwagon of misery without feeling any of it.

The ingredients are all here for doomy atmospheric metal, but I'm afraid the songwriting talent just isn't.