Same Difference is the fifth full-lenght Entombed album and the first after Nicke Anderson left the band to focus himself on The Hellacopters. There are many people that don't like this album and even hate it! There are some blogs that published the entire Entombed discography except for Same Difference.
I don't understand that. Ok, I must admit that this album is not the Death Metal fury for what Entombed is famous for, but still Same Difference is not that bad! I like this album a lot! There are great songs on it like Addiction King, The Supreme Good, 20/20 Vision and the depressive The Day, The Earth. Hell, there isn't a bad song on this album. This version contains the bonus track Vices By Proxy. Try for yourself and share your opinion. Enjoy!
This album marks the beginning of a new era for Entombed, one of the great originators of death metal as we know it. There is not much death metal about this album though, but rather an insight into a band that is trying to figure out what to do after losing one of its founders and main songwriters, in this case drummerboy Nicke Andersson, who decided to focus his efforts on his more commercialy successful rock n´ roll outfit The Hellacopters. His replacement was as you know Peter Stjärnvind, known from bands like Merciless and Face Down, a man who would later help steer Entombed back into the heavier branch of metal once again, but that is a different story. "Same Difference" instead displays the band in their most unheavy moment ever, something that could be sensed by simply looking at the cute dog on the cover, and is confirmed by the songs themselves. Entombed, at the time of the album´s release, recieved a lot of criticism from a rather large portion of the fans for mellowing as well as selling out, but have they really? Does the lack of heaviness (note, though, that this isn´t pop music, it is still heavy by "normal" musical standards) make for a bad album? I think not.
To begin with, this record clearly shows that the bands´ songwriting abilities did not go out the kitchen door together with Nicke, since there are some truly great tunes on this disc. The album is also great productionwise, with a more crisp and clean vibe than anything ever before heard by this band. It wouldn´t, of course, fit on records like "Left Hand Path" or in fact any of their other efforts, but manages to add significantly to the feel of "Same Difference". L-Gs voice isn´t as low-pitched as it usually is, but works great in songs like "Addiction King" and the title track. The songs are all rather slow and sometimes groovy, with the exception of "What You Need", a moderately fast number which add diversity to the record. This isn´t the way Entombed should sound, but as a one-off experiment, it stands as a nice, different album for the band, something to relax to when you are temporarily fed up with their otherwise intense music and just want to relax on the sofa. The feeling of this album makes it something you maybe want to listen to on a hungover sunday, instead of at a booze party two hours before you hit the town, which is where I preferably listen to other Entombed material. The only thing from keeping this a really solid effort are a couple of unnecessary filler tracks, but they´re not particularly bad either, just somewhat uninspired.
(By Julle at Encyclopaedia Metallum)
Entombed - Same Difference (1998)
