What a mess in the Entombed camp. Alex Hellid has turned against his old brothers in arms and has gone his own ways. Rather silly, it would seem. But leave that be. Fact of the matter is that there is a new release from the rest of Entombed with L-G in front.

I don't know how you react when bands you like split up and act childish, but I get annoyed and highly suspicious of what comes out from those who still claim the band name. I did the same when I received the promo material for 'Back To The Front'. Although clearly making a statement with the album title, I wasn't at first convinced. The songs weren't immediately catchy, they had too much of a punk edge and too little death metal, I found all sorts of ways to feed my initial suspicion and found it hard to get into the album.

To be honest, it was completely unjustified behaviour on my behalf.

L-G, Nico Elgstrand (guitars), Olle Dahlstedt (drums) and Victor Brandt (bass) have delivered a more than worthy follow-up to 2007's 'Serpent Saints' and all in all an album that is has so much Entombed in it, that I reckon all fans of the band's close to 25-year career ought to be pleased. Apart from The Underminer, there are no super fast songs on 'Back To The Front', it's not 'Left Hand Path' or 'Clandestine' (one of my all-time favourite albums, by the way), but it has lots of mid-tempo, down tuned, groovy sludginess in the characteristic Entombed style.

There are no big surprises on the album, really, except perhaps the cool and soundtrack-like intro to the opening song, Kill to Live, and likewise different intro to the song that has become my favourite tune of the album, Pandemic Rage. But the thing is this; with a band like Entombed (A.D.) you don't need big surprises, just a band that stays true to themselves and their style, and do so with conviction. L-G and the boys have managed to hold the flag high with this album. Amen.