Entombed - Left Hand Path (1990) Reviews

Inspired by the recent discussions here on the Metal Academy forums around Dismember and Like An Ever Flowing Stream, I realised that I had not taken time to review that record or indeed the highly lauded debut by fellow Swedish death metal legends, Entombed. With both albums coming out within twelve months of each other (Entombed’s being the first) I can remember a lot of noise around both of them to be honest. Back in the old Terrorizer forum days, Left Hand Path was always described as being “5 fists”, the ultimate accolade we regulars would give a record on that forum. It was dished out as the rating without any consideration to it being anything less, there was just no questioning the quality and importance of the Entombed debut as far as us Tez forumites were concerned.

Landing before even Carnage’s Dark Recollections, Entombed’s debut has the humble accolade of being known as the first true Swedish death metal release and one that kickstarted the whole scene. As such, no words I can use some thirty years after its release can detract from the fact that this album was hugely important (still is arguably). That buzzsaw guitar tone was the unique identifier that made the album standout from more or less everything else at the time. However, I would argue that on reflection this is not the album highlight or me. That award goes to the superb vocal performance of the late Lars-Göran Petrov.

Petrov’s throaty vocals are the clear standout for me as they are not overdone (unlike the buzzsaw guitar). They possess a hardcore gruffness with a guttural edge that is not as dramatic as John Tardy or Chris Barnes, yet was still perfectly suitable to the more melodic elements of the debut album. The explosive drums of Nicke Andersson are the second success of Left Hand Path. Not technically superb, but still such a complete performance, nonetheless. Now, the buzzsaw guitar is not lost to me obviously. As much as I stand by my statement that there is too much of it, it is impossible to not be hooked by the catchy riffing on the likes of Supposed to Rot and Bitter Loss. It is just that I find that this sound of riffing is suited much better alongside other elements in the sound so that the riffs really do standout. Whilst not quite background noise, they do fade quickly when you look at the whole album.

Structurally, Left Hand Path suffers from repetition track to track. It gets too much credit for founding a sound/style instead of doing anything all that remarkable with it. There is the odd, spoken word passage or shouted line into a cavernous echo that does little if anything to add any real menace to proceedings. Barring the sonic work of Alex Hellid, there is little technically all that impressive here. Whilst this review may have read a lot differently some twenty or thirty years ago, it is not an album that has aged all that well when placed in front of a metalhead of some thirty-five years at least. Important but not essential.

Entombed unleashed an extremely dirty, yet captivating sound with Left Hand Path. What's now considered to be the Swedish death metal sound was pretty much created right here. Others would follow including Dismember, Grave and Carnage. Pummelling mid paced drums, deep yet decipherable guttural vocals, grooving bass and that filthy guitar sound combine to give quality tunes a feeling of brutality and abundant power.

There are some really great tracks on Left Hand Path including the classic opener Left Hand Path, Drowned, Revel in Flesh, Supposed to Rot, Morbid Devourment and Premature Autopsy, but as many have mentioned below, a lot of these tracks start to blend into one by the second half of the album. But Entombed obviously set out to utilize this sound to create a massive unrelenting album and that's exactly what it is. I also love the album cover which is extremely dark, eye catching and cool. Clandestine would be a better album than this one, but there's no denying how important and enjoyable Left Hand Path was and is.

So, armed with my new-found knowledge of the Swedish death metal sound (thanks Ben and Daniel for enlightening me), I turn to Sweden's Entombed and their debut Left Hand Path. Now that it's been pointed out, the difference between the mainly US death metal that went before and the more heavily distorted sound produced by these Swedes is pretty obvious, even to my untrained ear. At the risk of being lambasted for such heresy, for me, this increased distortion and the wall-of-sound it creates (the buzzsaw sound) is a large distraction from the riffs, which feel like they are buried under a thick layer that takes away from their efficacy. A further result of this is that the lack of definition in the riffs means that the songs then seem to blur into one another and rob them of their individuality. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for heavy distortion (you can't be as big a doom fan as me without it) but I really don't feel it particularly adds anything to the death metal sound and this lack of definition in the riffs robs them of their power to my ears. That said, this does not make Left Hand Path a poor album, but I found I had to approach it from the point of view of the overall effect of it as a whole rather than focussing on individual tracks, the diversity of which isn't massive. When taken as such it is a fairly evil-sounding release and that guitar sound does have a kind of hypnotic effect if you stop trying to differentiate the riffs and let it just overwhelm you, a lot like listening to the droning of a large (angry) bee colony.

The rhythm section seems pretty solid, if not spectacular and the growls are suitably gruff and threatening. The lead guitar work though is possibly my favourite part of the album and the solos seem to have lost the chaotic, Slayeresque aspect of so many predecessors and, in fact, sound far more like the work James Murphy put in on Death's Spiritual Healing.

Overall, I understand why Entombed are beloved by death metal fans, their sound was certainly a new direction for death metal at the time, but I prefer the greater clarity of the US sound or, at the very least, the all-in atmospheric representation of decay and death as peddled by the likes of Autopsy and Sempiternal Deathreign.

Say what you will about what Entombed would become later on during the 1990s with the innovation of Death 'n' Roll, it was clear from the very beginning that death metal could be made accessible. The bands first two albums were very strong releases in the early stages of the death metal genre. Perhaps a little repetitive in comparison to many of their contemporaries at the time, but Entombed were a band with promise and direction. Songs like the title track, "Revel in Flesh", "But Life Goes On" and the closer "The Truth Beyond" showed us that you could in fact write an infectious death metal riff/hook and not have be relegated to a particular vocal line. As a result, these songs have some well established merit, allowing them to stand outside of the mosh pits where they would no doubt have served a dynamic purpose.

Sure the production does sound quite muddy at times, some of the melodic ideas are repeated throughout the album but not in a conceptual way, and the album does have its moments (i.e. "Morbid Devourment") in which the drastic whiplash effect of time changes invokes my knee-jerk reaction of over-indulgent technicality. But for an early deviation from Slayer and other adjacent thrash metal bands into the early stages of death, Entombed were on the cusp of something great, and were fortunate enough to have other Swedish bands pick up the slack when they diverged into something drastically different.

RIP L-G Petrov

Good god. Death Metal was born in the late 80’s, but most of that stuff isn’t a huge leap away from extreme Thrash and Black metal of the same decade. Even the albums that had broken from carrying clear Thrash influence still sound like a genre in development. This beast sounds like it could have been released yesterday.

Entombed took one step back and two forward. They slowed down a bit, and instead of trying to outdo their peers with technical prowess or blistering intensity, dug themselves a grave and adopted a truly sepulchral sound. Insanely downtuned guitars with a sludgy buzz sound like they’re cutting through a murky swamp, while the rhythm section lays tight and varying beats that pound at a steady mid-tempo (by extreme metal standards). The vocals are the deepest growls laid to record by 1990, and there is a very cold, grave atmosphere that runs somewhat contrary to the genre’s roots in hellfire. The blue cover could play into this as much as the band’s icy homeland – but this is unmistakably the closest to true, cold death that Death Metal had ever gotten at the time