Left Hand Path (album)
Left Hand Path is the debut studio album by Swedish death metal band Entombed, released on 4 June 1990 by Earache Records.[1]
| Left Hand Path | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 4 June 1990[1] | |||
| Recorded | December 1989 | |||
| Studio | Sunlight Studio, Stockholm, Sweden | |||
| Genre | Death metal | |||
| Length | 47:38 | |||
| Label | Combat, Earache | |||
| Producer | Tomas Skogsberg, Entombed | |||
| Entombed chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
Background
The title of the album refers to the Left-Hand Path belief system. Guitarist Alex Hellid found the term in Anton LaVey's book The Satanic Bible.[3]
The title track contains an interpolation of the theme from the 1979 horror film Phantasm at 3:54.[4]
Influence
The album is known for defining the style of Swedish death metal by being the first studio album to use the "buzzsaw" guitar tone. The tone was created by heavily detuned electric guitars (To B) used with a maxed out Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal Pedal and the DS-1 Distortion pedal into a Peavey amp. The originator of this guitar tone was Nihilist guitarist Leif "Leffe" Cuzner.
Left Hand Path was ranked No. 82 on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time.[5]
In August 2005, Decibel inducted Left Hand Path into the Decibel Magazine Hall of Fame, naming it the first "proper" Swedish death metal album, with the "buzzsaw" guitar tone being crowned as the legendary "Entombed sound".[6]
Cover versions
Two songs from the album were covered by Belgian death metal band Aborted, "Drowned" for the re-release of The Archaic Abattoir and "Left Hand Path" for the EP Coronary Reconstruction.
In popular media
"Drowned" was featured in the 2009 video game Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned on the radio station Liberty City Hardcore.
Track listing
All lyrics are written by Nicke Andersson, Alex Hellid; all music is composed by Andersson, Uffe Cederlund, Leif Cuzner.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 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 Rot" | 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 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 11. | "Carnal Leftovers" | 3:00 |
| 12. | "Premature Autopsy" | 4:26 |
Personnel
Entombed
- Lars-Göran Petrov – vocals, production
- Uffe Cederlund – guitar, bass, production
- Alex Hellid – guitar, production
- Nicke Andersson – drums, bass, production, logo
Technical personnel
- Tomas Skogsberg – production, engineering
- Dan Seagrave – cover art
- Micke Lundstrom – photography
- David Windmill – design
References
- "Entombed 'Left Hand Path'". earache.com. Earache. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
- Birchmeier, Jason. Entombed: Left Hand Path at AllMusic. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
- J. Bennett, "Left Hand Legacy", Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces, Albert Mudrian, ed., Da Capo Press, p. 113.
- Bennett, p. 118.
- Stone, Rolling; Beaujour, Tom; Shteamer, Hank; Kelly, Kim; Smith, Steve; Spanos, Brittany; Exposito, Suzy; Bienstock, Richard; Grow, Kory; Epstein, Dan; Considine, J.D.; Greene, Andy; Sheffield, Rob; Bergrand, Adrien; Christe, Ian (21 June 2017). "The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
- Chase, Jesse. "Entombed – "Left Hand Path"". Decibel. Retrieved 2018-05-11.