On Friday the 19th the 013 venue in Tilburg opened its door for the two most famous Swedish death metal bands ever, the infamous Grave and Entombed (A.D.). Both bands can be held accountable for setting the blueprints of what we now know as the typical Swedish death metal sound: the ultra fuzzy mammoth sound of a fully-cranked Boss HM2 pedal spicing up punky Death metal riffs. But can these bands still deliver or have they been surpassed by the many recent old-school death metal bands that tap from the same vein?

Unfortunately I had to miss filth mongers Repuked playing the support slot, but luckily I was in time for Grave. Still delivering decent albums after 26 years, they have often been called a one-trick pony. This might be true, but why change a winning formula? The beginning of their set was quite sloppy, and due to some technical difficulties it took a while before everyone seemed to get into the set. As soon as they played their classic You’ll Never See… the overall vibe turned over and their “hit” songs kept on coming. Even though the beginning was a bit of a struggle, they showed us what they were good at: delivering high quality old school death metal.

Due to a seemingly childish name dispute L.G. Petrov and his bandmates now go under the moniker Entombed A.D. The big question in everyone’s mind was if the band could still pack the same punch as without some original members and the silly A.D. suffix. Luckily, after a show that took an hour and a half (!)  they proved that they were still able to live up to their name. The newer songs were in the slow, grooving vein as some songs on Serpent’s Saints, which didn’t really live up to their classics like Left Hand Path and songs from the Nihilist era. Even though this was a more than decent show, let’s just hope the old Entombed members learn to bury the hatchet so they can drop the silly A.D. suffix.