Celebrating Death ‘n’ Roll with the Anniversary of Entombed’s Wolverine Blues

Back in October 1993, the face of heavy metal was changed forever when Entombed dropped their genre warping album Wolverine Blues, creating a new styles we’d never head of even back then and we didn’t know we needed — death ‘n’ roll. While it’s not a massively possible genre even today, it’s a definite cornerstone of rock and metal and inspired a lot of other genres, like modern doom, many types of indie classic rock, and even certain strains of deathcore.

Wolverine Blues was the third record from the Swedish death metal band, and looking back after 30 years, it still holds up. Initially released by Earache Records, the album went in a different direction for their other two melodeath/classic death metal records. The punk and hardcore elements along with the classic rock that fused with the European death metal was an unexpected sound, but one that actually worked really well for the band.

The groove on the record is sometimes even compared to bands like Pantera and Crowbar, and the album was definitely influenced by the almost country-friendly moment the U.S. was having with metal, making for a really unique take on the American rock sound.

The track list on the record is also worth mentioning because of so many stand-out songs. “Rotten Soil” is one of the most unique songs on the record with it’s odd tempo and dark, dystopian lyrics. The title track, and probably one of the best known from the record, is catchy classic rock at its best.  “Hollowman” and “Out of Hand” are also of note for how much their structure influenced what became death ‘n’ roll today.

Another fun—and bizarre—fact about Wolverine Blues is that it was briefly associated with Wolverine of Marvel fame, against the band’s wishes, no less. Earache made a deal with Marvel without the band’s permission, and there were even a few limited edition versions of the record with a mini-comic in the CD booklet released. The record was heavily edited and didn’t even include “Out of Hand.” As a Wolverine and Entombed nerd, such a record is a thing of legend.

While Wolverine Blues might not be the most-listened-to record in most metalheads’ collections, there is absolutely no denying the influence this record has had on the scene at large, particularly the niche genres of today that were inspired by death ‘n’ roll.