Look, we know there are a bunch of oddballs out there who, no matter what anyone says or does, staunchly believe that any band’s demo is the pinnacle of their energetic display and that their charming, youthful song writing skill and non-deliberately awesome guitar tone and kick drum sound will be the best thing they will ever do. Like, seriously! There are people who unbelievably prefer No Life ‘Til Leather to Kill ‘Em All! Fucking weirdos!
The timing and details surrounding this release are curious. The demos were originally released on CD-R in 2009 and limited to 50 copies. However, many of the ideas and riffs go back as far as Entrails’ early '90s salad days and most of these songs have already appeared on their first two albums, Tales From the Morgue and The Tomb Awaits. That Resurrected From the Grave is appearing so shortly after the release of the critically lauded Raging Death album seems more like Metal Blade flooding the market and keeping a potential meal ticket earning those meals. But even if most of what death metal sings about involves the heartless slaughter of everyone and everything, you can never accuse it’s performers of not taking those potential piles of human carrion into consideration. Apparently it was, in part, Entrails’ fanbase crowing about the demos needing proper release that motivated this action and not the fact that the band is going on an extended break in order to write their next album. Feel free to debate this topic amongst yourselves in your spare time.
Anyway, on to the contents. Two demos, Reborn and Human Decay, both featuring guitar/bass/drum programming by Jimmy Lindquist and vocalist/frontbeard, Jocke Svensson recorded with the help of modern conveniences and technology which, ironically enough, may have stripped away some of the inherent dirt from the original rehearsal tapes from which these tracks were culled, but does nothing to stop the runaway freight train of authentic Sverige death metal on tap here. We’re assuming the songs are presented in chronological order as much of the top half of Reborn (“Evil Obsession,” “The Morgue,” “Your Dead Dog Smile”) sounds like it was nicked from the usual suspects – y’know, Left Hand Path, Like an Ever Flowing Stream and Into the Grave. As the collection zombie-limps on, the songs become slightly more mid-paced, exhibit melodic temperament and even a slightly progressive sense of adventure (“Midnight Death”).
One can definitely trace the development of Entrails from acolytes – actually, they were on-site participants! – of the original wave of HM-2 Swedish death to a more refined and polished version of themselves. The older material might hit you harder in the gut, if you can get around the artificial drums and wavering sound quality, and might even help with any resentment you might have about the continued rookie strip mining of Left Hand Path going on these days. In the end, Resurrected From the Grave is one of the more vital and warranted demo collections to be made available. If anything, it’ll ignite a shit-ton of healthy debate about whether Entrails’ demo days were their best days.
8/10
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