Entrapment - Irreligeous Abominations

ENTRAPMENT - Irreligeous Abominations (GODEATER - CD 2012)

Once I have listened to the “Crawling Morbidity” 7”EP from the Dutch old school death metal monster Entrapment I knew that I need to try to collect all the previous recordings of this project. I really, really liked the music on this single. And while it could have been pretty difficult to get the original tapes with the first couple of demos (“Infernal Blasphemies” and “Putrefying Stench of Death”), especially since some of them were limited to a criminal quantity of 100 copies, then the band prepared a killer surprise, which is a compilation CD “Irreligeous Abominations”. This album compiles all the Entrapment demos, plus few extra tracks, which were recorded during the recording sessions for those demos and as a bonus it also features a live recording of the band from Het Podium Hoogeveen from January 2012. In total you’ll find here 55 minutes of music, with 19 songs.

Well, this truly is a real feast for the Swedish old school death metal sound maniacs. Entrapment sounds like a classic Swedish band and takes a lot of influence from Nihilist, early Entombed, Dismember, Unleashed, etc. And I’m glad to say that each of their demos is just fantastic and sounds extremely great. The first one, “Infernal Blasphemies”, from 2009 sounds most rough and maybe that’s why it also sounds so similar to the Nihilist and Entombed demos. I love this stuff fully. The riffing is just classic and the best thing about it is that it just sounds like a long lost demo tape from 1989! Entrapment resurrects the atmosphere and the feeling of the music from this time perfectly and more so, they (or he, as it used to be a solo project of Michel Jonker back then) have the riffs, the ideas and energy, which erupts into your face! I also really, really like the guitar’s tone, the harsh vocals (which are so similar to the early LG Petrov’s!)… What a killer stuff. And no surprise than back then they’ve recorded Nihilist’s “Supposed to Rot” cover, which sounds just as good as the original.

The “Putrefying Stench of Death” and “Crawling Morbidity” demos are also crushing. I’m not gonna go into much details, but they also are truly, truly killer. “Putrefying Stench of Death” may sound slightly different, it is closer to the early Centinex for instance, but anyway it is very, very good material. You may be surprised by more punky song “Three Miles to Oblivion” (and then it turned out it’s a cover of a band called Crucifix, US hardcore punk band from their 1983 “Dehumanization” LP). And “Crawling Morbidity” is just a classic already, with so good songwriting that it rips the guts out within a second. The production for this demo is just perfect to my ears, raw, but clear, powerful and with perfect guitar tone… And the songwriting is 666% killer, for “Mass Obliteration” especially, but also such song as “Crawling Morbidity”, which is just a fast motherfucker, will nail you down to the ground instantly. Quite funny is “Yog Sothoth”, a track, which wasn’t featured on the 7”EP, as it has such a clear rip off from the early Morbid Angel (can’t remember now which song, “Maze of Torment” maybe???) that it can make you laugh hehe!

As for the live recording I honestly expected rather raw and primitively sounding bootleg recording, meanwhile I am very positively surprised, as those seven songs sound really well! Actually they have a sound close to a demo sound and sometimes it could even be difficult to spot if it’s a live recording or well done rehearsal recording. So, it is really good and I’m happy about it, as the bad bootleg would only spoil the whole good impression. As for the songs here, the band played few bits from every demo and I can say that they did it really well; you can just close your eyes and feel the energy and power of Entrapment’s live appearance.

If there are any faults of “Irreligeous Abominations” then I can only say that I’m slightly disappointed by the way it has been released. I would expect to get many extras, like the lyrics, original demo covers… you know, anything that would make it really, really interesting and complete. Instead you can just find a simple layout in the digipack, with basically nothing in it. Sad, but I can swallow the disappointment only due to the brilliance of the music. Definitely “Irreligeous Abominations” is a must to have and great introduction to Entrapment, especially as just now the band is about to release their first full length LP, “The Obscurity Within​.​.​.”. I can’t wait to get that LP!

Final rate: 90/100