You know how it is with the survived classic death metal bands - raw industries without innovations in the producing process, but with the same quality of the production. Entombed survived in spite of all saints. In fact, they don’t give a damn about the saints; Lars Goran Petrov stigmatized them as serpents and roared the current album of the Swedish pack. This time there’s a line-up change again, as “Serpent Saints” is the first CD for the new drummer Olle Dahlstedt. Not that the difference is obvious to the ear - the music of the band supposes the batterer to punch hard, and Olle pounds the leathers more than convenient (you can hear him letting individual fusillades in “When in Sodom”, known from the 2006 ЕР of the same name). The songs are played in a more moderate tempo with a couple of exceptions that are like a nice bouquet of thistles. In them the guys combine some of the main old-school rules - raw and deadly croak of the guitars, strong banging on the drums, thick as a slab of a sarcophagus bass, and vocals that are not just a growl but a throat roar coming deep from the chest. In other words, if you like listening to Vader, Dismember and Grip Inc., Entombed play a metal alloy in your taste, too. Yes, the speed is not the leading element, but the lower temp of the music underlines the intensive force of the tracks and thus they sound rough and inspiring. “In the Blood” is a typical example of how the slow but steady fisticuffs in the jaw are sometimes more powerful than the mad cannonade of chaotic punches, and the unholy trinity “The Dead, the Dying and the Dying to Be Dead” is the hymnal salute to all who wear proudly their black panoplies, battered war-shoes and long hairs. This way Entombed fire ten straight ones in a row under a different angle at the head of the listener and of anyone that might have something against the old, virile death metal. “Serpent Saints” is one of those albums that the true followers of a band or a style in music will like in its first hearing, and the pretentious will forget immediately. Of course, Entombed do not play for the second ones.