ENTOMBED

The fourth Entombed album reeks of complacency. The band were already legends by this point. Each of their three previous albums had either been good ("Clandestine"), great ("Wolverine Blues"), or epoch-defining ("Left Hand Path"). “To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth!” is bad. It got plenty of press coverage when it came out. Entombed had been absent for a few years and people were eager to hear it.
The band nailed the aesthetics here. The packaging was stylish, unique, and brilliant. The artwork captures the band's fondness for old/cult horror films. The special edition version looked particularly good with the band logo embossed on a plain black cover. The production of the music was equally impressive. Tomas Skogsberg had worked with the band for so long that he could give them the perfect sound by this point. The production here is loud, brash and noisy, but has depth aplenty. All the instruments are audible, yet they blend together. The effect is greater than the sum of its parts.