One of the all-time great Joe Strummer intros to a song: “This is a public service announcement…with guitars!”

I was never a big fan of Combat Rock but I always loved this song (much in the same way that I’ve never been able to come around to Sandinista but still really dig “Police On My Back”). I recently watched Don Letts’ Punk Attitude documentary again and when this song came on, I was determined to find the 7″ single. It is one my favorite late-era Clash songs. You can’t deny that punchy rhythm and Strummer’s dark political rant. The B-side — “First Night Back in London” — was never actually released on album. It is one of those interesting Simenon songs, always a little off-kilter, but still good nonetheless. “First Night Back in London” was supposed to be included on the original incarnation of Combat Rock, a double-album (ala Sandinista), called Rat Patrol at Fort Bragg, which was ultimately scrapped, remixed, and cut down to a single disc.

What can one say about this amazing gem I found at Monster Melodies in Paris. It’s my favorite Entombed track off of my all-time favorite Entombed album. While I understand that purists may disagree, no matter how amazing the first two Entombed albums are (especially Left Hand Path), the death n’ roll style makes Wolverine Blues one of the best heavy metal albums of all time (who gives a crap if it wasn’t pure death metal). The perfect melding of Motörhead, Black Sabbath, and Venom with that incredible chainsaw guitar sound. The “Out of Hand” single also has my two favorite covers by Entombed: a really down-tuned ultra-heavy rendition of Kiss’ “God of Thunder” and a very Swedish death-metal version of Repulsion’s “Black Breath.” I also think this is a stellar cover courtesy of drummer Nicke Andersson, who started jumping away from cliche’d death metal album covers and began creating more iconic designs (something he would continue to do for the Hellacopters and now Death Breath). Here it is in ten minutes of head-crushing heaviness: the birth of death n’ roll.