Entombed "Wolverine Blues (USA, Earache-Columbia, CK 57593)"

Wolverine Blues is the third studio album by Swedish death metal band Entombed, released on 31 August 1993 by Earache Records. It saw the return of vocalist LG Petrov, who had appeared on the band's debut album.

The album displays a completely different sound from previous releases, incorporating elements of hard rock and heavy metal while still retaining much of their traditional death metal roots, in a style that would later be known as death 'n' roll. The band also adopted a mid-tempo groove metal style for this release, similar to that of American band Pantera.

One version of Wolverine Blues was released with Marvel Comics' character Wolverine on the cover, despite Entombed never wanting their album to be associated with the superhero. Earache Records, without the band's permission, had made a deal with Marvel in order to use Wolverine to promote the album to a more mainstream audience, with the music video for the title track prominently featuring illustrations of the character. This edition included a Wolverine mini-comic inside the CD booklet. The Marvel edition was also heavily edited, with the track "Out of Hand" being removed entirely. A limited number of early pressings of the album contained audio samples taken from films (most notably Flatliners and Hellraiser III) which were subsequently removed from later pressing due to record label fears of potential legal action over their unlicensed use.

Wolverine Blues received mostly positive reviews. In 2005, the album was ranked number 494 in Rock Hard magazine's book The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time. The guitar magazine Guitar World labelled it "1994's best death metal effort and quite possibly the finest death metal album of this decade."

Track listing

1. "Eyemaster" Andersson, Hellid 3:21
2. "Rotten Soil" Andersson, Cederlund 3:27
3. "Wolverine Blues" Andersson, Cederlund, Hellid 2:16
4. "Demon" Cederlund, Hellid 3:22
5. "Contempt" Hellid 4:34
6. "Full of Hell" Hellid 3:24
7. "Blood Song" Cederlund, Rosenberg, Andersson, Hellid 3:25
8. "Hollowman" Andersson 4:29
9. "Heavens Die" Andersson, Hakansson 4:17
10. "Out of Hand" (removed in Marvel edition) Rosenberg, Hellid, Cederlund, Andersson 3:07

Total length: 35:10

This version of the album contains the Hellraiser III sample at the beginning of "Eyemaster" but omits the samples in "Rotten Soil" and "Out of Hand".

Music videos were made for 'Wolverine Blues' and 'Hollowman'.

This album moved away from their death metal roots to a more "death & roll" style which they would continue to explore with future albums. It also worth mentioning that it features L-G Petrov back on vocals.

There are three different audio versions of the album. The first one had samples in the songs "Eyemaster," "Rotten Soil," and "Out of Hand." The second (with the comic book promotion) and third versions deleted the samples, and the second also edited the song "Hollowman".

Art assistance: Benny Rehn, LG, Z, U, Henrik.

Photo by Z, Benny Rehn, Entombed.

Recording information:

Recorded at Sunlight Studios, Stockholm in 1992/1993.

Co-produced by Entombed.

Tomas Skogsberg – producer, engineer

Z. Benny Rehn – photography