''Morning Star'' is the seventh studio album by Swedish

metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...

band Entombed, released on 3 September 2001. The album is more experimental than previous efforts, and shows the band returning to a more traditional

death metal Death metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep death growl, growling vocals; aggressive ...

sound overall, though without abandoning elements of

death 'n' roll Death 'n' roll (portmanteau of ''death'' metal and rock'' 'n' roll'') is a subgenre of death metal music that incorporates hard rock-inspired elements. The achieved effect is that of death metal's trademark combination of growled vocals and ...

. It also introduces a handful of straightforward, fast-paced death/ thrash tracks, a first for the band at the time.

Musical style, writing, and composition

The lyrics for the song "I for an Eye" were written by

Orvar Säfström Orvar Säfström (born 18 February 1974) is a Swedish musician and writer, and former film reviewer and video game journalist. He hosted '' Filmkrönikan'' on the Swedish television network SVT from 2003 to 2006. Before that, Säfström was empl ...

who was also stand-in vocalist for the band in 1991 on the EP ''

Crawl Crawl, The Crawl, or crawling may refer to: Biology * Crawling, any type of tetrapod quadrupedal locomotion with the torso persistently touching or very close to the ground. ** Crawling (human), any of several types of human quadrupedal gait * L ...

''. The song "When It Hits Home" is influenced by the 1997 film ''The Devil's Advocate''. The lyrics to "Chief Rebel Angel" are in several cases based on quotes from ''The Devil's Advocate'' film: * John Milton: "I'm here on the ground with my nose in it since the whole thing began! I've nurtured every sensation man has been inspired to have! I cared about what he wanted and I never judged him! Why? Because I never rejected him, in spite of all his imperfections! I'm a fan of man!" * John Milton: "Don't get too cocky, my boy. No matter how good you are... ...don't let them see you coming. That's the gaffe, my friend. You gotta keep yourself small. Innocuous. Be the little guy. You know, the nerd, the leper. The shitkicking surfer. Look at me. Underestimated from day one. You'd never think I was a master of the universe, would you?" * John Milton: "I have been watching. Couldn't help myself. Watching. Waiting. Holding my breath. But I'm no puppeteer, Kevin. I don't make things happen. Doesn't work like that. ... It's like butterfly wings. Once touched, they never get off the ground. I only set the stage. You pull your own strings."

Reception

The album received a stellar review from

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

, ending with the recommendation: "Any fan of quality underground metal should find this to be a superb effort from an underrated band."

Track listing

Personnel

* Lars-Göran Petrov – vocals *Uffe Cederlund – guitar *Alex Hellid – guitar *

Jörgen Sandström Jörgen Sandström (born 13 November 1971) is a Swedish musician. He provided vocals, bass and guitar for Grave (band), Grave on their first three albums and played with Entombed (band), Entombed, on bass and backing vocals, between 1995 and 2 ...

– bass * Peter Stjärnvind – drums

References

{{Authority control Entombed (band) albums 2001 albums E1 Music albums