Well, here’s an album that changed the path of at least Swedish Death Metal with Entombed Left Hand Path we had in one single release a sound that defined the genre with its release in 1990. Owing mainly to the guitar tone, this release and soon after it releases by Dismember basically featured a particularly “Sandy” or gritty guitar tone that melted faces and created a wall of sound. I was still young when this came out so didn’t fully grasp the magnitude of what was going on, which is why its great to go back over 30 years later and revisit this stuff.
The song “Left hand Path” opens up proceedings and we the listeners are immediately taken to another place. The sound is unearthly. As soon as the vocals kick in you know this is some next level shit compared to what was around at the time. The sound at the time still had a lot of grind influence (Napalm Death, Repulsion etc) but was much more evolved in terms of song writing and technique. As left hand path continues you hear them use the them from the horror film “Phantasm” to great effect at the end of the song. It creates a mood unlike any other that a death metal band had created (at least up until this point) and shows Entombed are a band that are capable of creating melody and some haunting atmosphere’s as well as crushing death metal.
The album continues on in great form, showcasing the sound that put Swedish Death Metal on the map. The album cover art work is magnificent too, something that drew me towards this album straight away when I first picked it up. Song titles like “Supposed to Rot” and “When Life has Ceased” leave no doubts as to the subject matter contained within this record. This is death metal pure and simple. The title track “Left hand Path” is my fave due to the variation in the song but “Supposed to Rot” and “But Life Goes On” are also standout tracks. Generally speaking if you like the more extreme end of metal this is a skillful exploration of desolation, the feelings of which just ooze out of the speakers when you put this record on.
With this album Entombed have come straight out of the gate with an album that is heavy as hell, but still has feeling and melody where needed. The musicianship is great, and there are some really tasty guitar solos on this (something death metal was lacking in at the time). The vocals make the whole thing sound like it was recorded in a pit, the production on this also suits the album perfectly. As far as death metal goes this is an almost perfect record.
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