Entombed

Entombed established their preeminence on the Death Metal scene with their 1991 Earache debut Left Hand Path and their pivotal second album, Clandestine. No history of the genre could do without a long paragraphs on these touchstone recordings. But by Wolverine Blues (their 1994 major label debut on Sony), they had alienated many of their fans with slower, more commercial sounding songs. Their tenure at Sony turned out to be short-lived, but subsequent releases on independent labels indicate that Wolverine Blues wasn't so much a sellout as a sincere effort by the band to evolve and mature musically. Entombed have continued to downshift the tempo and have added blues elements to their sound, giving them a groove-rock flavor somewhere between the Black Crowes and Monster Magnet. Time will tell if these musical innovators have fully matured, or if they'll undergo yet another transformation in their long, polymorphic life cycle.