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. Guitar tone. "Left Hand Path" is noted for defining the style of Swedish 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 a heavily de-tuned setting (B tuning) combined 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. Accolades. "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. Personnel. Entombed Technical personnel