Review by Adam M on October 4, 2016.

Entombed brings the groove to the forefront on this new album. This is one of the main draws of their new form of music. There are definitely moments to jive along with to be found here. However, the massive death metal from the path of Left Hand Path is no longer a possibility with the band. Thus, we must be contented to groove along with tracks instead of outright headbanging along with them.

This can be sufficient, but if you’re looking for a classic sound that has massive riffs, you might want to keep looking. The riffs here are more mid-range and are better for a mid-paced mood than the types of aggressive fast paced stuff you might be looking for with the classic material. This is also sort of redundant because the last album featured much the same type of music, even though the quality could be seen as an improvement. One just doesn’t want Entombed A.D. to get stuck in a rut where they’re happy putting out second rate to the classics material. Again, there is a nice groove to these songs, but it’s sort of superficial. There isn’t that element of greatness to be found anymore, but just a band that is content with rolling out new material from time to time now.

The switching of the name from Entombed to Entombed A.D. is probably a good move because it gives this new type of material its own focal point. They’ve cemented classics with Entombed, so those are also more associated with the old name now. The more rock oriented approach now has its own niche. The music here is still solid enough to be passable for the death metal genre, even though it has a different focus now. Dead Dawn is a very good album, but far from an excellent one.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10