''Left Hand Path'' is the debut studio album by Swedish

death metal Death metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep death growl, growling vocals; aggressive ...

band Entombed, released on 4 June 1990 by

Earache Records Earache Records is a British independent record label, music publisher and management company founded by Digby Pearson in 1985, based in Nottingham, England, with offices in London and New York. The label helped to pioneer extreme metal by r ...

. It is now considered a landmark in the

genre, and is noted for having put

Swedish death metal Swedish death metal is a death metal music scene developed in Sweden. Many Swedish death metal bands are associated with the melodic death metal movement, thus giving Swedish death metal a different sound from other variations of death metal. Unli ...

"on the map."

Background

The album was recorded in less than a week in late 1989 at Sunlight Studio in

Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

. The tracks "Left Hand Path", "Drowned" and "Bitter Loss" were written days before the band entered the studio, and Entombed guitarist Uffe Cederlund retroactively laments the tracks as sounding unfinished and "really sloppy". Entombed vocalist

Lars-Göran Petrov Lars-Göran Petrov (17 February 1972 – 7 March 2021), often abbreviated as L-G or LG Petrov, was a Swedish vocalist, best known for his work with death metal band Entombed (band), Entombed. Career Petrov's musical career began with his playin ...

recalls that some lyrics were changed in the studio, and that while tracking vocal takes, guitarist

Nicke Andersson Anders Niklas Andersson (born 1 August 1972), also known as Nicke Andersson, is a Swedish musician best known as the singer and guitarist for the rock band The Hellacopters and drummer for the death metal band Entombed (band), Entombed. Besides ...

would stand behind him with a lyric sheet and point at which lines to sing. Uffe's guitar tracks were panned to the left and the right, while Hellid's guitar tracks were panned to the middle. The band did not have a permanent bassist at the time of the album's recording, so the two guitarists took turns tracking basslines "every second song". It is unknown who tracked bass on which song, but Cederlund believes he may have tracked bass on "Drowned" and "Revel in the Flesh". The title of the album refers to the

left-hand path In Western esotericism, left-hand path and right-hand path are two opposing approaches to magic. Various groups engaged with the occult and ceremonial magic use the terminology to establish a dichotomy, broadly simplified as (malicious) blac ...

belief system. Guitarist Alex Hellid found the term in Anton LaVey's book ''

The Satanic Bible ''The Satanic Bible'' is a collection of essays, observations, and rituals published by Anton LaVey in 1969. It is the central religious text of LaVeyan Satanism, and is considered the foundation of its philosophy and dogma. It has been descr ...

'', but Nick Andersson (who was the "big boss" in the band) made the final decision that it would be the album's title. The title track contains an interpolation of the theme from the 1979

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

'' Phantasm'' at 3:54. The album artwork was created by

Dan Seagrave Daniel Seagrave (born 1970) is an English-born visual artist who created many album covers for death metal bands, especially in the early 1990s. His works are typically highly detailed. Seagrave grew up in Ravenshead near Nottingham and now liv ...

Composition and lyrics

The sound on ''Left Hand Path'' has been described as "monumental," combining the "extremity of Earache's stable of British

grindcore Grindcore is an extreme metal, extreme fusion genre of heavy metal music, heavy metal and hardcore punk that originated in the mid-1980s, drawing inspiration from abrasive-sounding musical styles, such as thrashcore, crust punk, hardcore punk, e ...

" with the "elaborate songwriting structures" of the

Florida death metal Florida death metal is a regional scene and stylistic subdivision of death metal. Some of the most significantly pioneering and best-selling death metal acts emerged in Florida, especially in the Tampa Bay area. As a result, Tampa is unofficially ...

scene. According to author Natalie J. Purcell, the album also features "

Punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

-like and groovy rhythms offset with deep,

Doom Doom is another name for damnation. Doom may also refer to: People * Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed * Daniel Doom (1934–2020), Belgian cyclist * Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitche ...

-like sections".The album has drawn stylistic comparisons to

Napalm Death Napalm Death are an English grindcore band formed in Meriden, West Midlands, in 1981. None of the band's original members have been in the group since 1986, but since ''Utopia Banished'' (1992), the lineup of bassist Shane Embury, guitarist Mi ...

Carcass Carcass or Carcase (both pronounced ) may refer to: * Dressed carcass, the body of a livestock animal ready for butchery, after removal of skin, visceral organs, head, feet etc. *Carrion, the decaying dead body of an animal or human being, also c ...

Death Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...

Obituary An obituary (wikt:obit#Etymology 2, obit for short) is an Article (publishing), article about a recently death, deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as Article (publishing), news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on p ...

Morbid Angel Morbid Angel is an American death metal band based in Tampa, Florida, formed in 1983 by guitarist, primary composer and sole remaining original member Trey Azagthoth, vocalist and bassist Dallas Ward, and drummer Mike Browning. Widely considere ...

and

Godflesh Godflesh are an English industrial metal band from Birmingham. The group formed in 1982 under the original title O.P.D. (later Fall of Because) but did not release any complete music until 1988 when Justin Broadrick (guitar, vocals, programmi ...

. ''

Metal Hammer ''Metal Hammer'' is a heavy metal music magazine and website founded in 1983, published in the United Kingdom by Future, with other language editions published by different companies available in numerous other countries. ''Metal Hammer'' featu ...

'' said Entombed showed "a penchant for horror schlock and an underlying punkiness" on the album. Joe Matera of ''

Decibel The decibel (symbol: dB) is a relative unit of measurement equal to one tenth of a bel (B). It expresses the ratio of two values of a Power, root-power, and field quantities, power or root-power quantity on a logarithmic scale. Two signals whos ...

'' described the track “But Life Goes On” as an early example of "how

can indeed use

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

structures and still be completely intense," and Chris Krovatin of

Kerrang! ''Kerrang!'' is a British music webzine and quarterly magazine that primarily covers rock, punk and heavy metal music. Since 2017, the magazine has been published by Wasted Talent Ltd (the same company that owns electronic music publication ...

said "the band’s use of catchy melodies with a gross, gravelly guitar tone showed the world how excitingly sweet death metal could be." The album’s lyrical themes involve

morbidity A disease is a particular abnormal condition that adversely affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism and is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that are asso ...

and

existential dread Existentialism is a family of philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an authentic life despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. In examining meaning, purpose, and value ...

. According to Chris Krovatin of

Kerrang ''Kerrang!'' is a British music webzine and quarterly magazine that primarily covers rock, punk and heavy metal music. Since 2017, the magazine has been published by Wasted Talent Ltd (the same company that owns electronic music publication ...

, “While ''Left Hand Path'' uses much of the same subject matter as the records of its American counterparts, ..it moved away from the bloody mess of most of the era’s death metal, instead favoring a sense of grim

decay Decay may refer to: Science and technology * Bit decay, in computing * Decay time (fall time), in electronics * Distance decay, in geography * Software decay, in computing Biology * Decomposition of organic matter * Mitochondrial decay, in g ...

.” The album has been noted for defining the style of

by being the earliest known album to feature the heavily distorted, "down-tuned, saw-like guitar sound", also known as the "Sunlight sound", which would later become a staple for the regional scene thereafter. According to Joe Matera of ''

Guitar World ''Guitar World'' is a monthly music magazine for guitarists and fans of guitar-based music and trends. The magazine has been published since July 1980. ''Guitar World'', the best-selling guitar magazine in the United States, contains original a ...

'', it "sounded like a swarm of

bees Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamil ...

." The guitar tone was achieved using guitars tuned to B standard tuning through a Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal with all the controls set to max. These guitars were panned to the left and right channels, while a third guitar using a Boss DS-1 distortion pedal was placed in the

center channel Center channel refers to an audio channel common to many surround sound formats. It is the channel that is mostly, or fully, dedicated to the reproduction of the dialogue of an audiovisual program. The speaker(s) connected to the center channe ...

along with the bass. Entombed guitarist Leif "Leffe" Cuzner (who had previously played guitar in

Nihilist Nihilism () encompasses various views that reject certain aspects of existence. There have been different nihilist positions, including the views that life is meaningless, that moral values are baseless, and that knowledge is impossible. Thes ...

) has been credited as the "creator" of the Swedish death metal guitar tone. Cederlund remarked, "Everybody had that pedal, but Leffe was the guy who cranked everything to 10 first. That pedal is a really bad distortion pedal, but everybody had it because it was the cheap pedal to buy back then."

Andersson Andersson is a Swedish language surname, a form of the surname Anderson. ''Andersson'' is, if several spelling variants are included, the most common surname in Sweden.mids, and if you put that on 10, that's how you get that sound. If you just have the regular

Boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, ...

distortional edal(the orange one) there's only high and low ..first we thought the sounds was his guitar or his speaker, but it was his pedal. When we found that out, Uffe started using one too. Then Dismember bought the same pedals." A Peavey Studio Pro 40 combo amplifier that was being used by the band was said to have played a "pivotal role," as well.

Reception and legacy

According to Jason of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

, ''Left Hand Path'' was an "accomplishment" in the

genre, and "foreshadowed the pivotal role that

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

would soon play in the evolution of the then-burgeoning genre." ''

'' named the album one of the best metal albums of the 1990s, saying, “''Left Hand Path'' remains one of the most gruesomely perfect pieces of

ever committed to tape. ..Most importantly, the Swedish sluggers’ stellar debut showed the

Yanks ''Yanks'' is a 1979 drama film directed by John Schlesinger, and produced by Joseph Janni and Lester Persky, and is written by Colin Welland and Walter Bernstein. It stars Richard Gere, Lisa Eichhorn, Vanessa Redgrave, William Devane, Chick ...

didn’t have the monopoly on white-hot death metal. Bands are still ripping it off 30 years on.” ''Left Hand Path'' was ranked No. 82 on ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

''s "100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time". In August 2005, ''

'' inducted ''Left Hand Path'' into the Decibel Magazine Hall of Fame, naming it the first "proper"

album, with the "buzzsaw" guitar tone being crowned as the legendary "Entombed sound". It has been called "the pinnacle of Swedish death metal," and ''

Invisible Oranges ''Invisible Oranges'' is an American online music magazine dedicated to heavy metal news, band interviews and album reviews. It was founded by Cosmo Lee in September 2006 shortly after emigrating from San Francisco, California, United States t ...

'' hailed the title track as "one of the greatest

metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...

songs ever composed." ''Metal Hammer'' named ''Left Hand Path'' the 9th best death metal album of all time, calling it "brutal and dark" and "full of genuinely great tunes," and said the band's songwriting was "sharper", "catchier" and "more memorable" than most other acts in the genre.

Cover versions

Two songs from the album were covered by Belgian death metal band

Aborted Aborted is a Belgian death metal band formed in 1995 in Waregem. The group currently consists of vocalist, founder, and only constant member Sven de Caluwé, along with guitarists Ian Jekelis and Dan Konráðsson. Although the band originally ...

: "Drowned" for the re-release of '' The Archaic Abattoir'' and "Left Hand Path" for the EP ''

Coronary Reconstruction ''Coronary Reconstruction'' is an EP by the Belgian death metal band Aborted, released on March 2, 2010 through Century Media Records. The album is the first to be recorded with the band's new 2009 line-up, and was released mainly as a digital EP ...

''.

Track listing

Personnel

Entombed *

– vocals * Uffe Cederlund – guitar, bass * Alex Hellid – guitar *

– drums, bass Technical personnel * Tomas Skogsberg – production, engineering *

– cover art * Micke Lundstrom – photography * David Windmill – design

References

{{Authority control 1990 debut albums Entombed (band) albums Albums with cover art by Dan Seagrave Earache Records albums