''Left Hand Path'' is the debut studio album by Swedish death metal band Entombed, released on 4 June 1990 by

Earache Records Earache Records is a British independent record label, music publisher and management company founded by Digby Pearson in 1985, based in Nottingham, England, with offices in London and New York. The label helped to pioneer extreme metal by rel ...

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 Satanic Bible'' is a collection of essays, observations, and rituals published by Anton LaVey in 1969. It is the central religious text of LaVeyan Satanism, and is considered the foundation of its philosophy and dogma. It has been descri ...

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

Legacy

Guitar tone

''Left Hand Path'' is noted for defining the style of

Swedish death metal Swedish death metal is a death metal music scene developed in Sweden. Many Swedish death metal bands are associated with the melodic death metal movement, thus giving Swedish death metal a different sound from other variations of death metal. ...

by being the first studio album to feature the "buzzsaw" guitar tone that would later become a staple for the regional scene thereafter. The guitar tone was achieved using guitars tuned to B standard tuning through a Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal with all the controls set to max. These guitars were panned to the left and right channels, while a third guitar using a

Boss DS-1 The Boss DS-1 is a distortion pedal for guitar, manufactured by the Roland Corporation under the brand name Boss since 1978. The first distortion effects unit made by Boss, it has become a classic effect, used by many notable guitar players. B ...

distortion pedal was placed in the center channel along with the bass. Leif "Leffe" Cuzner has been credited as the creator of the Swedish death metal guitar tone, who was a guitarist in the band

Nihilist Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning. The term was popularized by Ivan ...

(who later reformed as Entombed).

Accolades

''Left Hand Path'' was ranked No. 82 on

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'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 Aborted is a Belgian death metal band formed in 1995 in Waregem. The group currently consists of vocalist, founder and only constant member Sven de Caluwé, guitarist Ian Jekelis, bassist Stefano Franceschini and drummer Ken Bedene. Although t ...

: "Drowned" for the re-release of ''

The Archaic Abattoir ''The Archaic Abattoir'' is the fourth album by death metal group Aborted. The track "Dead Wreckoning" contains audio samples from ''American Psycho (film), American Psycho'', and the song "Threading on Vermillion Deception" contains audio from ...

'' and "Left Hand Path" for the EP ''

Coronary Reconstruction ''Coronary Reconstruction'' is an Extended play, EP by the Belgian death metal band Aborted, released on March 2, 2010 through Century Media Records. The album is the first to be recorded with the band's new 2009 line-up, and was released mainly a ...

''.

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

Personnel

Entombed * Lars-Göran Petrov – vocals * Uffe Cederlund – guitar, bass * Alex Hellid – guitar *

Nicke Andersson Nicke Andersson (born 1 August 1972), also known as Nick Royale, is a Swedish musician best known for his work as the singer and guitarist for the rock band The Hellacopters and drummer for the death metal band Entombed. He was also briefly th ...

– drums, bass Technical personnel * Tomas Skogsberg – production, engineering *

Dan Seagrave Daniel Seagrave (born 1970) is a British artist, who created many record covers for death metal bands especially in the early 1990s. He lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He grew up in Ravenshead, near Nottingham. Seagrave's works are typically ...

– cover art * Micke Lundstrom – photography * David Windmill – design

References

{{Authority control 1990 debut albums Entombed (band) albums Albums with cover art by Dan Seagrave Earache Records albums