Entombed: The Quaker Oats of Death Metal

[Planetary Eulogy]

The problem with Left Hand Path isn't what it does, it's what it hardly even contemplates: dynamics, fully articulated melodic content or any sense of purpose or direction. This is a painfully one-dimensional album; the meticulously muscular production cannot overcome songwriting with the conceptual topography of a sheet of paper. Left Hand Path is all brawn and no brain.

The exception is the album-opening title track, which opens with the menacing barrage of power chords so characteristic of the album as a whole, but breaks up the bludgeoning and creates dramatic tension with a doomy interlude before building to a powerfully melodic conclusion. It's a stunning vision of re-creation, the phoenix life rising from the ashes of death.

Unfortunately, after six-and-a-half brilliant minutes, Left Hand Path quickly moves into far less fertile creative terrain. The rest of the album is a vast featureless desert of half riffs and half melodies, strung together in patterns so predictable that you can hum the conclusion of every phase two bars ahead, banged out in barely perceptible variations of 'up-tempo' and 'mid-paced', until the whole project sounds like nothing so much as musical oatmeal - bland, tasteless and blazing a path straight to the colon.

4/10

 

[Mr_Haze]

no

 

[CAIRATH]

I want 30 seconds of my life back. Should have looked at the poster before clicking this thread.

 

[Tranquillian]

What do you expect from a bunch of 16-17 year olds?

 

[Carcassian]

I kind of agree, albeit not to the same extent. LHP is a particularly fine album, but most of the tracks pale into insignificance when compared to the almost peerless excellence of the title track.

8.5/10 in my opinion however - maybe your opinion of the album is coloured by the bands that have come since, as mine is coloured by how exciting the album was at the time and the feelings the album still manages to evoke in me after all these years.

 

[Life Sucks]

Regardless of how good the album is as far as death metal goes, it is still far superior to anything Entombed released after Clandestine (which is their best album in my opinion).

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

I'd give it an 8.5 as well, Carcassian. Not fucking mindblowing, but certainly revolutionary for some people, and thus worthy of a few points right there; top it off with the fact that I enjoy listening to it sometimes, and you get a solid 8.5.

 

[ohiogrinder]

never cared for Entombed and I don't like Quaker Oats

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

 

[Planetary Eulogy]

8.5/10 in my opinion however - maybe your opinion of the album is coloured by the bands that have come since, as mine is coloured by how exciting the album was at the time and the feelings the album still manages to evoke in me after all these years.

Even in the context of the its place and time, Left Hand Path comes up short. Several contemporary or near contemporary releases from the Stockholm scene work with much the same technique, but get far better results, most notably God Macabre's The Winterlong and Dark Recollections by Carnage, but also Grave's Into the Grave, Dismember's Like and Everflowing Stream, and Where No Life Dwells by Unleashed. It also fairs badly when compared to similar works from other scenes (DarkThrone's Soulside Journey leaps immediately to mind).

The problem isn't with viewing Left Hand Path through the prism of subsequent works, the problem is that, one outstanding song aside, the album takes riffs that were already tired and generic at the time and then takes them absolutely nowhere. They're just sort of there, treading water at 180 decibels.

 

[Spirit In Black]

i prefer clandestine anyway...but LHP is better than you say

 

[J.]

I never did like entombed.

 

[plaguewilder]

There are many other Swedish albums I prefer from that era, like,Where no life Dwells, Into the Grave, The Karelian Isthmus (even though it's Finnish!) and the best of the lot...Like an Everflowing Stream! However, Left Hand Path is AMAZING in it's own right.

 

[Priest of Evil]

I still get a great feeling when i listen to LHP after all these years but I do agree that the title track is where the money is.

Dismember's LaEFS certainly takes the cake on total craftmanship! Grave, Carnage and Unleashed all had brilliant debuts, the Stockholm scene was really brutal back then, before the shift to Gothenburg...

 

[byrne]

I think both Like an Everflowing Stream AND Left Hand Path are overrated. Both good albums, but vastly overrated. Although LHP may not "contribute" as significantly to the genre as LAEFS though, I still enjoy it more - even for it's (as it was well put) all braun approach to what is simply a musical onslaught.

 

[Carcassian]

SNIPPED God Macabre's The Winterlong I haven't heard it, so unable to comment.

and Dark Recollections by Carnage - Never in a million years even appoaching LHP in terms of songwriting or performance. Dark Recollections, aside from the odd riff or two, remains one of the most over-rated albums from the era.

but also Grave's Into the Grave - good, but hardly any more sophisticated than the music to be found on LHP

Dismember's Like and Everflowing Stream - yeah, good album - probably equal to LHP in terms of overall quality

, and Where No Life Dwells by Unleashed. - also a fine album.

It also fairs badly when compared to similar works from other scenes (DarkThrone's Soulside Journey leaps immediately to mind). Soulside Journey is a death metal album, and so hardly from another scene. It is also puzzlingly popular for an album full of half baked ideas and rudimentary song writing.

The problem isn't with viewing Left Hand Path through the prism of subsequent works, the problem is that, one outstanding song aside, the album takes riffs that were already tired and generic at the time and then takes them absolutely nowhere. They're just sort of there, treading water at 180 decibels.

I must take issue with the last paragraph. There are some filler tracks on the album, to be sure, but the lions share of the album is simple, competent yet enjoyable fare - yes, so some of the riffs were seemingly 10 year old Motorhead guitar motifs played through more extreme distortion - their venerable age doesn't necessarily mean that they are any less potent.

By the way, how many replies do I have left before you degenerate into calling me a Jew?

 

[Mort Divine]

I didn't know Falconsbane posted here, oh joy.

 

[skeptik]

He posts when he writes something. You didn't know that? He posts on all the message boards. He has some other reviews in the works that I'm anticipating, actually.

 

[no country for old wainds]

By the way, how many replies do I have left before you degenerate into calling me a Jew?

Considering your comments on Soulside Journey, hopefully not very long.

The Winterlong is too cool for this thread.

 

[Carcassian]

Considering your comments on Soulside Journey, hopefully not very long.

The Winterlong is too cool for this thread.

Like, that's just your opinion, dude. Anyway, can't stop long, got to head off to the wailing wall...What's so wrong with me being a Jew anyway? You got something against chicken soup?