10 90s Metal Albums That Successfully Transformed Their Band's Sound

7. Entombed - Wolverine Blues

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skn3VFz5pUM Sweden's Entombed really were the real deal. Their influence can be felt today in acts like Bloodbath and that's largely due to their pioneering brand of music entitled death 'n' roll, along with their scary believability. On their game-changing '93 record Wolverine Blues, the group let go of the death metal grip that had suffocated some of their earlier work and embraced the more conventional western metal style. Despite losing some of their hardened fanbase because of it, the record still stands up twenty-three years on as one of the most brilliantly sinister creations of the 90's. It's an album that wallows in its own self-destructive tendencies particularly on songs like 'Demon' and 'Full Of Hell', tracks where you can almost feel the flames lick at your eardrums, pulling you down further into a bottomless pit filled with anguish and despair. This is music at its most visceral and most frightening, with lyrics like "demon come live in me, fill me with disease" reminding you that this lot aren't playing around. Of course this wouldn't mean much if the musical underpinnings weren't there to match, but luckily, their sound is just as vicious and upfront as the lyrical content. The guttural wound that is 'Hollowman' exposes the fragile core of Entombed - one that is scarred, bloody but oozing venom, while the title track bullies its way into the cranium through the use of a killer guitar refrain and some no-nonsense vocal verbiage. This reoccurring, contrasting balancing act of vulnerability and brutishness is what propels the album to even greater heights. Sure they changed their sound but when it enhances the overall product in the way that this record does, it really becomes a none issue. AC/DC sang about a "highway to hell", Entombed enthusiastically drove on it with what is arguably the most hellishly nihilistic album of the 90's in the form of Wolverine Blues. Key Tracks: Rotten Soil, Demon, Full Of Hell, Hollowman