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.

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.
The title track contains an interpolation of the theme from the 1979 horror film Phantasm at 3:54.

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 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.
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".

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 on the radio station Liberty City Hardcore.

Track listing

Personnel

Entombed