Left Hand Path (album)

Left Hand Path
Studio album by Entombed
Released June 4, 1990
Recorded December 1989
Sunlight Studio, Stockholm
Genre Death metal
Length 46:38
Label Combat/Earache
Producer Thomas Skogsberg
Entombed chronology

Left Hand Path
(1990)		 Clandestine
(1991)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]

Left Hand Path is the debut album from Entombed from 1990 that is known for defining the style of Swedish death metal by being the first recording 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. The album's liner notes give thanks to Nirvana, but the band in question is the Swedish death metal group Nirvana 2002, not the famous grunge act. The album was recorded in the legendary Sunlight studio in Stockholm, Sweden during December 1989.

The title of the album refers to a Left-Hand Path belief system. Guitarist Alex Hellid found the term in Anton LaVey's book The Satanic Bible.[2] This is explored in the eponymous opening track of the album, with the first verse:

I am my own God, master, slave
And I will be beyond the grave
No one will take my soul away
I carry my own will and make my day

The more melodic, ambient section that comes in at 3:54 of the title track is a cover of the theme from the 1979 horror film Phantasm.[3]

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

"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 tracks by Entombed (lyrics: Nicke Andersson and Alex Hellid / music: Nicke Andersson, Uffe Cederlund and Leffe 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
11. "Carnal Leftovers" (Bonus Track) 3:00
12. "Premature Autopsy" (Bonus Track) 4:26
Total length:
 46:38

Personnel

Entombed
Production

References

  1. ↑ Birchmeier, Jason. "Left Hand Path - Entombed". Allmusic.
  2. ↑ J. Bennett, "Left Hand Legacy", Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces, Albert Mudrian, ed., Da Capo Press, p. 113.
  3. ↑ Bennett, p. 118.