‘Entombed forged the key that opened all of death metal up to me with Left Hand Path, and judging by how many bands still draw clear inspirations from its sound (if not outright copy it), I’m sure I’m not alone.‘
-Iain Ferguson
Release date: June 4, 1990 | Earache / Combat Records | Facebook | Instagram
If you saw a death metal-adjacent band roll up to a gig with a bunch of HM-2 pedals in tow, chances are you just witnessed a bunch of Entombed fans. Left Hand Path is a legendary record, most notedly for its influence on the sound of an entire armada of death metal, grind, and crust bands. Buzzsaw riffs for days, baby! There’s a sense of energy and irreverence to Left Hand Path that makes it relevant beyond its undoubted status amongst fans of the genre.
Iain Ferguson
Queasy strings strike, a voice cries out in pain, and a thousand imitators are launched.
Left Hand Path by Entombed is just a bit older than I am, and I still fondly remember stumbling upon it. I was nearing the end of high school, on a school-organized trip to Germany, wandering around the CD section of a tech store in Berlin during some of our exploration time. Extreme metal was still new to me, and I noticed a copy of Left Hand Path on the shelves. The album’s reputation preceding it, I snatched a copy, eager to check it out when I got back to the States. And friends, it hit hard. I’d heard the odd death metal album to by that point, but none of them had truly stuck. Entombed was the first band in the genre to hook me, Left Hand Path was my first favorite death metal album, and it sent me on a path I haven’t deviated from since.
Formed by most of the members of Nihilist days after that band’s dissolution (as an easy way to fire their bassist without actually firing him), Entombed wasted absolutely no time coming out swinging. After a quick demo in 1989, the band hit the legendary Sunlight Studios in Stockholm, and in 1990, Left Hand Path was unleashed upon the world. As opposed to the more outwardly malevolent and thrashy approach many American death metal bands (Morbid Angel, Obituary, Deicide, et.al) were taking, Entombed played a huge part in establishing the Stockholm sound for the genre. Their riff work owed much more of a debt to the Swedish hardcore punk scene many musicians (Entombed included) were spawned from, and the scene was much quicker to grasp on chunky grooves, more rocking riffwork, and a genuine sense of fun than their US brethren.
From the opening onslaught of “Left Hand Path” proper, Alex Hellid and Ulf Cederlund conjure up a veritable onslaught of riffs that does not flag for a moment across the album’s run time, beyond the momentary reprieve of a Phantasm theme song cover at the opening tracks end (bolstered by a phenomenal bluesy guitar solo). Songs like “Drowned” and “Revel in Flesh” go hard on more flowing, tremolo-heavy riffs that Entombed‘s countrymen Dismember would soon perfect, while tracks like “But Life Goes On” and “Bitter Loss” are plain unfair in grooviness and catchiness. Entombed also makes great effort to vary their song lengths, with scorchers like “Supposed to Rot” doing everything they need to in 2 minutes while the likes of “Morbid Devourment” crafts more of a mood over a longer runtime.
Built on the unshakable foundation of Nicke Andersson’s outstanding drum work, the musical aspect of the album is just plain flawless. And vocally, there’s a reason L-G Petrov was such a beloved figure in death metal. His intelligible, mid-range roar is just perfect across the album, bolstered by some cool layering, and even some great use of effects (most noticeable in the psychotic pitch shifting on bonus track “Premature Autopsy”). Maybe other death metal vocalists have since wowed me far more, but it’s hard to think of anyone bettered suited to helm Left Hand Path.
Honestly, Entombed could have called it quits here, and they would still be legends. Every aspect, from the punkish energy to the very guitar tone (that legendary ‘Swedish Chainsaw’ sound granted by maxed-out HM-2 pedals) has persisted in hundreds of projects since. As early as Bloodbath‘s Breeding Death EP in 2000 (they even gave a delightful nod to that Phantasm fade-out on their own “Furnace Funeral”), through early ’10s ragers like Black Breath‘s Sentenced to Life and to this day on albums like Carnation‘s Cursed Mortality, you could fairly say that the majority of death metal, especially those old school-oriented bands, owe Entombed and Left Hand Path especially a serious debt, if not their whole existence.
Of course, Entombed did not call it quits. They even managed a worthy follow-up via the ripping Clandestine, before deciding to establish death’n’roll as a subgenre on the legendary Wolverine Blues and following that track for much of their career (and beyond with Petrov’s splinter band Entombed AD). Sadly, Petrov succumbed to cancer in 2021, but his legend will live on, much like that Left Hand Path. The rest of the musicians, meanwhile, have recently reactivated Entombed and are apparently working on new material for the first time in nearly two decades. Time will tell how that turns out, but we can all hope some of that old magic is about to roll out again.
Entombed forged the key that opened all of death metal up to me with Left Hand Path, and judging by how many bands still draw clear inspirations from its sound (if not outright copy it), I’m sure I’m not alone. That a group of young Swedes could roll into a studio and inspire so many musicians is remarkable, and Left Hand Path remains an album that feels fresh and vital no matter how many clones have come out since. You can’t improve on perfection, and if you want perfect Swedish death metal, you’re looking at it right here.
Broc Nelson
I should have heard this album when I was in high school. My first exposure to death metal was then, in the form of Cannibal Corpse, Macabre, and Deicide. While those bands made an impact on me and are still enjoyable, they didn’t really sell me on the genre. I wouldn’t become seriously interested in death metal until my 30’s. I had long been a fan of black metal, power metal, doom metal, thrash, etc. Somehow, death metal didn’t click for me until I began truly trying to expand my knowledge of metal, reading Pitchfork’s now defunct column, Show No Mercy and absorbing their year-end metal album lists.
That, and resources like Cvlt Nation, helped break me into death metal, but it was really hearing Starspawn by Blood Incantation that sent me down a death metal rabbit hole. To understand the old-school death metal revival that Blood Incantation, Tomb Mold, Vastum, and others were paying homage to, I had to explore the vast world of death metal, from all over the globe. Death and Possessed were obvious starting points, and Finnish death metal appealed to me with their more doom-adjacent style. My only knowledge of Swedish death metal was At The Gates and In Flames, both of whom I enjoyed, but didn’t love the same way I did the newer bands and Finnish death metal.
Left Hand Path by Entombed, however, was often listed highly on many internet lists about death metal, and when I listened to it for the first time, it seemed to tie together all of the loose ends of my death metal explorations.
The opening track pretty much did that alone. Holy fuck, this song still goes so hard, and is basically a blueprint for so many bands I have come to love. The intro of hellish, agonized screams followed by thrashy, Slayer-esque guitar work launches forward like a spear of destiny into a full throttle, punk inspired deluge of pure death metal joy. As the song pumps the breaks and moves to death metal’s often mid-paced tempo, each new twist feels immediate and devastating, as tempo shifts and solos and screams assault expectations. All the while, the song is about taking the fates and presumed authority of religion into your own hands. You are your own master; worship yourself. Do what thou wilt. Oh, then it pulls out some Goblin-influenced horror movie synths followed by another series of solos that don’t necessarily melt faces, but fit perfectly the mood and trajectory of the song.
Entombed weren’t interested in the prog-death and technical death metal that Obituary, Death, Cynic, and Atheist were attempting. They weren’t bad musicians, so it wasn’t for lack of talent. Instead, what Entombed offered was a way of making death metal fun. This was music to mosh to, but unlike the over-the-top gore of Cannibal Corpse. “Revel In Flesh,” for instance, balances grotesquerie with all of the fun that metal can produce, fast paced, haunting, and made for headbanging.
I think this is what appeals to me the most about Left Hand Path, why it makes death metal gel together in a rare way. Death metal, really all kinds of metal, has to walk a fine line of producing extreme sounds and writing songs about death and horror tropes without becoming some form of self-parody. These are serious and heavy topics, but the way a slasher movie revels in practical effects, there is a sense of seriousness about the music. This often leads to either extreme pretentiousness or extreme goofiness. Sometimes, neither of those things are the band’s intention, but there are only so many ways to write heavy songs about dismembering a corpse, but perhaps none better than “Premature Autopsy.”
So, when bands strike that balance, of retaining the pure fun that fast and loud music creates without sounding like they are trying to gross you out or unveil some deep philosophical truth, it hits the hardest. “But Life Goes On” further strikes that balance. The line ‘life is your worst enemy,’ conveys a simple concept, memento mori, remember, you die, while blasting your entire face off with massive riffs and drums that force some sort of body movement. Tap your foot, throw your buddy into another buddy, shift around uncomfortably because you don’t really like all kinds of music, whatever. You’re going to move.
The breakdown on “Morbid Devourment” that leads to a sinister laugh emphasizes the kind of campy, but thrilling fun that Entombed were having when Left Hand Path was recorded. These were kids, just having fun playing a whole new genre, possibilities endless, and single handedly carving out a scene to compete with Florida. “The Truth Beyond” opens with a riff that would fit in a Trap Them song, followed by some scale runs that lay ground work for many math-inspired bands to come. Haunted Evil Dead vocals pop in, church bells clang, and before you know it, we are back to pushing the pedal to the floorboards.
It has been written about before, but it is almost impossible to overstate the impact that this record had. Entombed not only put Sweden on the death metal map, but went on to influence countless bands, small and large, with their perfect blend of speed, talent, and energy. This is death metal in one of its purest forms, not trying to be technically flashy, overly somber, or self-aware ironic, just unadulterated authenticity which few albums or artists even come close to.
