ENTOMBED: Studio Update

ENTOMBED have entered Soundland studio in Upplands Väsby, Sweden to begin recording their new album, "Serpent Saints", due on June 6, 2006 via Threeman Recordings. The upcoming CD will be the group's first without the contributions of guitarist Uffe Cederlund, who left the band in September. ENTOMBED guitarist Alex Hellid has issued the following report on the progress of the recording sessions for the new CD:

"Friday, December 9, 2005: I get to the studio a little before 2 pm. Pete [Stjärnvind, drums] and Nico [Elgstrand, bass] are already there and I hand over the new hard drive and keypad (Nico poured a cup of the in keypad he had and it stopped working). I pick up the V and warm up while Nico is setting up the new drive and formatting it, which takes longer than we thought. Pete is ready and anxious to start hitting some drums. Finally we have a green light and start playing. Things go a lot better today and we do a couple of takes one of the songs from yesterday and it feels like we are getting somewhere. Next Pete wants to have another go at a song (working title: 'Carnage') that me and Nico feel is already 'in the can,' but why not… I go listen to the demo a couple of times, it's an old-school fast NIHILIST-type thing, and we play the song four or five times. It sounds good but I don't know that it's better than what we already have.

"Nico and I try out a few different guitar amp and cabinets after Pete leaves but I'm really tired after a rather long week decide to call it a day a little after 7 pm. Short day today but it is Friday. Nico stays to listen to the days work and see what we got.

"Monday, December 12, 2005: Another Monday starts off week four. I pick two Marshall speaker cabinets from our practice room and head out to the studio at 1 pm. Nico is already out there. When Pete gets there a little later we start listening to the demo of the track we decide to have a go at today, so far it's called 'Amok'. We run through it a couple of times but Pete is really tired and don't like what he hears when we listen back. We decide he should take tomorrow off and just recharge his batteries. There's lots of other things to do so that's OK, but we start to feel the pressure of the upcoming crucifixion celebration and we want to have done as much as possible of the drums by then.

"I leave the studio at 8 pm. Nico stays."

"Tuesday, December 13, 2005: Only Nico and I at the studio today. We go over the arrangements for the songs we haven't recorded yet. Try a few edits here and there to see what works and what doesn't.

"We need to get drums done. We count to six days before the holiday break and we want all drums and some guitars done by then!

"Next we try out amp heads with different speaker cabs and can't find anything that we like. We move the cabs around and box them in and move them to the concrete room behind the drums to see what that sounds like. Nothing feels good and we plug straight into the computer and play around with the Amplitube plug in. Then we listen to some old albums to get some reference. Want a sound better than any other album we done but nothing too complicated. I would be most happy if straight into one of the 800 Marshalls would do the trick.

"Brought my Gibson Melody Maker today, mostly play it acoustic on the couch at home but it's got a real nice tone and I want to use it for something, but we quickly find out that it's not the mail rhythm guitar. Think I'll bring an old SG tomorrow and see if it can compete with the Les Paul and the V (that Nico hates — naturally, I play it as much as I can) for some rhythm tracks.

"At 8.10 pm we leave the studio and race back into town."