Monkey Puss (Live in London)

“LEFT HAND!” * “PATH!” *

“YEAAH!”

I’m sorry, that reminded me so much of Maniac’s horrible impersonation at Wacken 2004. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go check out the video on Youtube, it’s embarrassing.

Fuck yeah, what a killer album. Earache was in their right mind officially releasing this bootleg. Honestly, the sound is gorgeous – almost to the point where it’s hard to tell that it’s a live recording. Even the bass – the mother fucking bass – can be heard like its Bob Daisley on the thing. Hellid and Cederlund are crazy with the riffs, trying out different styles than the original songs themselves while still retaining that signature edge. This comes as no surprise, since this was recorded back in 1992.

I do have a couple complaints to point out before I dig deeper. One can be the solos, which are sloppy, screechy, and really detract from the chuggy, muddy guitar tone. Even the bass sounds grumpy because the solos sound so out of place. Another issue I have is that “Chaos Breed” doesn’t make an appearance on here… for real? C’mon! That curbstomping break in the middle would be perfect for a live concert – could have even killed a poseur or two. Otherwise, let’s get on with the show!

The drums are what I’ll give the biggest praise, since the live sound really brings out the resonance and energy. Andersson is also the only one that doesn’t joke around – what I mean by this is that while the guitarists are obviously having way to much fun to play completely in sync, the rhythm is still met by the drumming. Even Lars starts to lose breath sometimes and can’t even growl properly. This comes off as unpleasant and lazy, although I bet he was really trying to keep up. You could tell that the crowd didn’t care, though, since they’re probably busy desecrating dead body props or something. I’m super serial, you’ll have as much fun jumping around with this as you would the first two full-lengths.

The ones I feel the guys capitalized on were “Sinners Bleed” and “Left Hand Path.” They pretty much came to the realization with those two that they were in a live setting, so they could experiment a little and make more of an effort to play with their own creations. For instance, the darker bridge at 3:40 of “Left Hand Path” just screamed to make it on the original recording. What we lack however is the epic outro to the song that sounds as though it’d be impossible to replicate.

Now the real question is “do you need this?” When it comes down to it, no, but if you’re a big Entombed fan, I’d say check it out. It’s not that you have to hear Entombed live, but if you didn’t get the chance to hear them all those years ago, then this’ll be a good pick-up, cause I can guarantee they won’t be going back to this style for a long time. However, if they do, then I can do you double and say they probably won’t sound as good.