LG Petrov of Swedish death metal pioneer Entombed A.D. talked to Bryan Fields of National Rock Review on their upcoming album.

LG Petrov is the Singer/Vocalist for the new band Entombed A.D. In all fairness ‘new’ is not really an accurateword when, in reality, Entombed A.D. is not new at all.

The band Entombed has been around 1987 under the name Nihilist, eventually changing their name to Entombed by the time their début album, Left Hand Path, was released in 1990. There have been numerous lineup changes over the years, leading up to the bands 2007 release of Serpent Saints, which saw the band with only two remaining original members; LG Petrov and Alex Helid.

For reasons described in the interview, Alex was not active with the current lineup of Entombed. Rather than continue to wait for him, the band (minus Alex) changed their name to Entombed A.D. and moved on.

August 5th will see the release of the début album from Entombed A.D. titled Back to the Front.

I had the opportunity to speak with LG Petrov about the band and the events that let up to this album. It seems that there will now be Entombed AND Entombed A.D., yet there is no news on an upcoming release from Emtombed. So continues the trend of split bands continuing separate, but parallel paths.

Bryan Fields: Hello there how are you?
LG Petrov: I am fine!
Bryan Fields: You are in Sweden right now correct?
LG Petrov: Yes, yes I am at home.
Bryan Fields: I’ve heard the new song Bedlam Attack, I think it’s a real crusher, definitely in the classic Entombed fashion. I’m anxious to hear the album, so what are your thoughts on it?
LG Petrov: That song Bedlam Attack is the oldest song that we have on the album, some of those riffs we’ve had for a couple of years so we just dug it up. We thought it was a good idea to throw that one out first, get that one out of the way.
Bryan Fields: Well its killer man!
LG Petrov: Well thank you, thank you Sir! I haven’t actually heard the album in a long time now; I’m just saving it for the release as well.
Bryan Fields: Yeah you know I like to do that too, bands put stuff out, they stream it and so forth, but I try not to listen to it until it comes out so I’m not burned out on it before it’s even out.
LG Petrov: Yeah, that’s cool, but I do have to learn the lyrics and the songs, but I think they’re still in my head since the recording was done.
Bryan Fields: When was this album actually recorded?
LG Petrov: Last year, I don’t remember, maybe in May or something. For us it’s kind of an old album. I talked to our guitarist Nico, he has been listening to it for a long time now, a couple of rounds and he says it still sounds fresh and that’s a good thing to hear!
Bryan Fields: Why has there been such a delay in the release? I’ve read that it was to be released several different times, and then it got held up, then no word, what happened?
LG Petrov: Yeah, one person wanted to do some stuff and expect us to wait, I mean it was time for a new album. It’s been what, Seven years since the last one and we sat down with everybody involved. I mean it’s time to record an album and when we started to do recording, started to do riffs one person in the band back then, he didn’t turn up. The rest of us just continued and did the songs and eventually went into the studio. There was a lot of name issues and stuff like that so it got held up as you said. But now we just have the urge to play music and headbang and do what bands do, the upper hand I guess. I mean you can do a lot of stuff with a band name, but eventually you have to do an album cut that’s what it s all about. And go on tour, so yeah then we became Entombed A.D. just to get the album out, and do what we love to do, tour and headbang! We’re not tired of it yet after 25 years.
Bryan Fields: Now that is amazing in itself! But I’ll get to that part later; I’ve done quite a bit of reading and the question that everyone into Entombed seems to ask is:What happened with Alex?
LG Petrov: Maybe at some point maybe you can ask him. I don’t know, that’s where we are right now. We have an album out, he has not. You have four people wanting to do music and the fifth wants to do something else, but he doesn’t tell us what it is. We got just tired of waiting. It’s been a mess. This year that has past I’m just laying it aside basically, it’s been frustrating, it’s weird, we’re weird! I haven’t thought about it that much actually. Been busy with the album and the songs. Maybe at a later time you can actually ask him.
Bryan Fields: Yes, that I would. Fans would like to know what’s going on. I’ve read conflicting information as to whether or not Alex played on Serpent Saints?
LG Petrov: Oh yeah he did.
Bryan Fields: So he did the writing and the playing on Serpent Saints?
LG Petrov: Yeah not all of it, but there is one guitar solo there, on that album and I play half of it.
Bryan Fields: So you play guitar then?
LG Petrov: No I play half a solo!
Bryan Fields: Well it’s still guitar man! We call it punk, if ya can’t play that well (laughs).
LG Petrov: So, yeah strange, I get speechless every time someone asks me, (regarding Alex) you forget, you don’t think about it. Most important for us, if somebody wants to blame us for making music, that’s their problem.
Bryan Fields: That said, why did you choose to carry on the Entombed name using Entombed A.D.?
LG Petrov: Because we are Entombed A.D.! It’s as simple as that, we’ll just carry on. We want to make things happen and they are happening right now. It doesn’t have to take 100 years to do a project, too so stuff with a band. We don’t want to wait anymore. It’s hard to make songs for an album, but it doesn’t have to take seven years. That’s what was happening. We just proved that when everybody works together and professionally it happens when the ball gets rolling. It just happens when everybody works together instead of against each other
Bryan Fields: The pledge music campaign, there are a lot of people wondering about this, are you getting any royalties from this? (Reissue project for Entombed reissues and special merch for people who pledge money to buy what hasn’t been made yet, run by Alex Helid).
LG Petrov: I should be. I haven’t gotten anything yet, but that pledge thing was one of the things Alex wanted to do before making an album, but we wanted to do an album. Maybe at the same time or before. What I know, he started that seven, eight months ago and people haven’t gotten anything from it yet. And that shows you what I was saying before, it doesn’t have to take, everything takes 100 years. Print it out and ship it away, what’s the problem?
Bryan Fields: It seems that we’re living in an age where bands are breaking up into two separate entities, and so now it seems like a situation where there’s Entombed and Entombed A.D. How do you feel about that?
LG Petrov: If you want to play music and headbang and be in a band, but you don’t want to tour you want to stay at home, it should come to the point, ok, I can’t do this anymore and just step aside. I don’t know what the deal is with other bands, but I’m sure they came to an agreement or some sort of solution. Our solution was to put this album out because we wanted to do what bands do and not sit at home and try to make a quick buck on some reissues. You can do that, but at the same time make an album.
Bryan Fields: This new album, again I’ve only hear the one song Bedlam Attack, I’m sure the entire album has a similar sound; it’s definitely a continuation of the sound that Entombed is known for. My question is, how after so many lineup changes and losing the two original guitarists over the years, are you able to keep that same feel and that same sound?
LG Petrov: Eh, it’s all up to the distortion pedals! When we worked with Robert (producer) he knew what we wanted. We knew as well, we didn’t try out 100 different pedals. Oh, there’s a heavy metal distortion (boss Hm2), plug it in! Nico also has other pedals but the heavy metal is defiantly in there, it just pops up!
Bryan Fields: Do you write any of the music?
LG Petrov: Naw, I don’t have a guitar at home, but we send riffs to each other. I leave that up to the other guys mostly. I have some riffs on the album, but I usually wait until we are all in the rehearsal room and throw a riff or other parts in if they’re good!
Bryan Fields: The Swedish Death Sound, Grind, whatever you want to call it, all these years later , I don’t know about in Europe, but in America it is the Entombed sound. Now there are bands bringing that sound back, how do you feel about that?

LG:It’s very cool. I think because some of the previous Entombed albums didn’t have that sound, it’s a good sound. When I hear it I am happy. Bands like Entrails and so on. It’s perfectly fine by me!