Dead Dawn Entombed A.D. 2016 Century Media Records Entombed A.D. are a Death Metal from Sweden and were formed from the ashes of Entombed in 2014. However, according to the original Entombed guitarist Alex Hellid, the Entombed name is owned by him, thus Entombed A.D. As expected, Entombed A.D. don’t sound too dissimilar to Entombed. Dead Dawn is the second full studio album from Entombed A.D. and is the follow up to their 2014 debut, Back to the Front. Dead Dawn contains the same line-up as the previous album and features; vocalist Lars-Göran Petrov, guitarist Nico Elgstrand, Victor Brandt on the bass and Olle Dahlstedt on the drums. The production of Dead Dawn has been split into two sections, Down to Mars Ride, As the World Fell and The Winner has Lost was handled by Jacob Hellner and Tom Van Heesch, with the rest of the album being produced by guitarist Nico Elgstrand. Between them, the producers have managed to produce a decent sounding album, each instrument can be clearly heard and Dead Dawn is a big step up from Back to the Front both in sound and in song-writing ability. However, Dead Dawn suffers from being hugely unmemorable, with the tracks failing to stick in your mind. That isn’t saying that the songs on Dead Dawn are sub-par, the songs are enjoyable to listen to. Petrov has a decent, strong Death Metal voice which hammers through on Midas in Reverse, Hubris Fall and the sublime Silent Assassin. Entombed may have lost their chainsaw sound from their first two releases a long time ago, but with Entombed A.D. and in particular, Dead Dawn, it is heavy enough to appeal to fans from that era. Elgstrand’s guitar is heavy and granted, these days, it may be more akin to Thrash Metal at times than Death Metal, but Elgstrand shows that it isn’t all whacking away at the bottom string and plays some really cool melodic passages on the title track. Dead Dawn is a full on, no frills, relentless onslaught of Death Metal and the track, Down to Mars Ride is possibly the closest that Dead Dawn comes to being memorable, Petrov’s vocals are powerful throughout and once again is backed by some strong and melodic guitar playing from Elgstrand. It is unfair to talk about Petrov and Elgstrand exclusively, as no Death Metal album is complete without its rhythm section and Brandt is solid on the bass throughout. There are no gimmicks to his playing, he does exactly what is needed and it provides Dead Dawn with a deep thumping backbone of noise that has the bass in your speakers bouncing. The most interesting thing about Dead Dawn is debatably Dahlstedt’s drumming, the beats he uses and patterns make and possibly save Dead Dawn from not just being unmemorable, but also downright boring. As an album, Dead Dawn is at best extremely average. As good as it sounds, the main issue again is that the songs fail to stick. The musicianship is fantastic and some of the lyrical ideas are interesting, but just lack that killer touch. That aside, Dead Dawn is a big improvement on Back to the Front and you can actively see progress in their sound. Later this year/early next year, Alex Hellid has threatened a new Entombed album and it will be interesting to see how they both compare. 5/10 Adam The Winner has Lost (Entombed A.D.)
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