Left Hand Path (Album)

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Left hand path
Entombed studio album

Publication
(s)

4th June 1990

Label (s) Earache Records

Format (s)

CD, LP

Genre (s)

Death metal

Title (number)

10 (CD: 12)

running time

47:16

occupation

production

Tomas Skogsberg

Studio (s)

Sunlight Studio , Stockholm

chronology
- Left hand path Clandestine
(1991)

Left Hand Path ( English for path to the left hand ) is the debut album by the Swedish band Entombed . It was released on Earache Records in June 1990 and is considered to be style-defining and trend-setting for Swedish death metal .

Music genre

Stylistically, the album combines elements of grindcore , such as Napalm Death , which is also under contract with Earache Records , with the more sophisticated song structures of US death metal bands such as Death , Obituary or Morbid Angel . In addition, there were the deeply tuned guitars with the specific sound, produced by a BOSS HM-2 pedal and Peavey amplifier with all knobs to ten, which Skogsberg emphasized during production, as well as the brutal drum sound developed in the treble and bass range - a mixture that was further perfected on the following album Clandestine . The deep growling of Lars-Göran Petrov undergoes variations only in a few places, when it about short passes into clean vocals or how-bonus tracks CD is more skewed to the two.

Some blazing fast Grindcore interludes remain the exception of the hard riffing record, on which the title track stands out with a break and a mid-tempo part introduced by a synthesizer melody. It is based on a melody from the 1979 horror film Phantasm .

History of origin

In September 1989, Entombed recorded their first demo under the new name, it was called But Life Goes On . The members had previously released three demos in their previous band Nihilist , two of which were recorded by Tomas Skogsberg , who is also responsible for the production of Left Hand Path . Left Hand Path , recorded in December 1989, is essentially the result of this process. The bass tracks are shared by guitarist Cederlund and drummer Andersson, because David Blomquist, who had played the part on But Life Goes On , had returned to Dismember . Lars Rosenberg only took over the four-string after the recordings for the album, even if he is performed as bassist on later editions. In addition to Andersson and Cederlund, the original bassist of Nihilist, Leif "Leffe" Cuzner, is named as the songwriter.

Texts

The cross in the video and artwork for Left Hand Path in Stockholm's Skogskyrkogården .

The texts on Left Hand Path , written by Andersson and Hellid, can often be assigned to the Gore area, others convey apocalyptic impressions, such as the verse in the booklet:

"What man has created man can destroy - bring to the light that day of joy."

Although the band referred to Anton Szandor LaVey's Satanic Bible in the first verse of the title track , guitarist Cederlund explained the band's philosophy, which seemed individualistic :

"... to us God is a puppet who each person controls to their own rules. We aren't atheist, christian or satanist or anything like that, it's just our way of creating a debate on the actual meaning of religion, heaven and hell, good and evil and subjects like that. "

- Uffe Cederlund

reception

If Left Hand Path received good but not euphoric reviews at the time of publication, for example from Frank Albrecht from Rock Hard, who gave 8.5 out of 10 points and considered a production by the American Morrisound caliber to be desirable, the album will be included in retrospect Superlatives such as “classics” and “reference work” carefully. The album received 10 out of 10 points on metal.de in 2007, and 4.5 out of 5 stars on Allmusic.com.

In the book "Best of Rock & Metal" by the German rock-hard magazine Left Hand Path took 176th place of the 500 best albums according to the editors. In the February 2010 issue, the Rock Hard record was voted No. 2 of the 25 most important Death Metal albums behind Leprosy by Death .

Track list

  1. Left Hand Path - 6:41
  2. Drowned - 4:04
  3. Revel in Flesh - 3:45
  4. When Life Has Ceased - 4:13
  5. Supposed to Red - 2:06
  6. But Life Goes On - 3:02
  7. Bitter Loss - 4:25
  8. Morbid Devourment - 5:27
  9. Abnormally Deceased - 3:01
  10. The Truth Beyond - 3:28
  11. Carnal Leftovers - 3:00 am bonus track
  12. Premature Autopsy - 4:26 bonus track

Video

An essential part of the success of the first Entombed record was the music video shot by Kim Hansen, which the band used alongside live scenes and the like. a. on a monumental cross in Stockholm's largest cemetery, Skogskyrkogården .

Artwork

In the inner cover, the motif of the band in front of the cross was originally coined by photographer Micke Lundstrom, alongside the cover motif by death metal artist Dan Seagrave, it became the band's distinguishing mark during this phase.

swell

  1. ↑ www.powermetal.de: Review by Rainer Raithel
  2. ↑ a b c Left Hand Path at Allmusic (English)
  3. ↑ a b c www.metal.de
  4. ↑ a b DVD booklet Entombed - Monkey Puss.
  5. ↑ a b Frank Albrecht: Entombed . Left hand path. In: Rock Hard . No. 91 , December 1994 ( online [accessed November 29, 2015]).
  6. ↑ a b Rock Hard: Best of Rock & Metal
  7. ↑ www.laut.de: Entombed biography

Web links