In my view, the premiere Swedish death metal releases were Therion Beyond Sanctorum, At the Gates The Red in the Sky is Ours and Carnage Dark Recollections. Those who appreciate the latter may enjoy this disc of a live set from 1990, a soundcheck from 1989, and the “The Day Man Lost” demo from that same year.
This compilation/re-issue is exactly what it purports to be: a highly competent live set of the songs in the form you remember them from Dark Recollections, a brief glimpse of the more chaotic earlier live performance, and the classic demo that is mostly similar to the album. For this reason, …Left to Suffer in the Aftermath… will be essential for no one except death metal historians and those who want a less-detuned and slightly faster version of these classic songs for the “live experience” feel. The 1990 set dominates the release with its uptempo take on the Dark Recollections songs, with little if any deviation from the album, where the demo shows the details of the crustcore plus death metal fusion barely beginning to come together. The 1989 sound check shows an interesting glimpse of this band in a more vicious mood, but peters out when it gets going, and could easily be forgotten. The demo is faithful and a pleasurable rough listen.
For almost any occasion, it makes more sense to throw on Dark Recollections, especially since the re-issue contains this same demo. The live set however conveys a certain energy that studio recordings can never hope to duplicate and is a great listen for afternoons outdoors when you want something loud and chaotic but structured, sort of like the reason that people still treasure Mayhem Live in Leipzig despite the microphone-in-Satan’s-anus sound quality. Obviously, if you are still reading, you are a Swedish death metal and/or Carnage fanatic, and you probably need this on your shelf.
Tags: carnage, death metal, Dismember, entombed, Swedish Death Metal
I prefer Like an Ever Flowing Stream to Dark Recollections; less Repulsion, more Sepultura.
I can never get enough Repulsion, but what I hear in Carnage is more Amebix and Cro-Mags than the grind acts. Would be interesting to see what they say on this topic.
I listened to Like An Ever Flowing Stream so much in the 1990s that I think I wore grooves in the CD.
Do you still listen to “Left Hand Path”? What do you think of it now?
The problem with Left Hand Path is the album gets worse the further down the tracks you go until it becomes actual crusty Scandinavian hardcore with HM-2 pedals. The best song on Left Hand Path is Left Hand Path. There are other classics on that record of course but as to why it was arranged that way I have no idea.
Also, all of the cool stuff that happens in the latter half of “Left Hand Path” is directly lifted from the Phantasm soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h21Q-bOOsos
Yep. They also did a cover of the “Hellraiser” theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaTgQVp5ODA
Songs like “Morbid Devourment” and “The Truth Beyond” – tracks 8 and 10 on the album – are more elaborate than stuff like “Revel In Flesh” or “Supposed To Rot”. The earlier Nihilist songs have more punk/crust in them than the later ones and the earliest Entombed songs. So I can’t agree with you that “Left Hand Path” gradually becomes a crust record.
I’d say there’s a pretty even alteration between crusty songs (“Supposed to Rot,” “Abnormally Deceased”) and more epic heavy metal songs (“Drowned,” “Bitter Loss”). Even their oldest material has a decent amount of Sepultura-like complexity to it (“Face of Evil,” “Sentenced to Death”).
I like to make fun of them for the Phantasm thing, since I’ve seen so many pretentious reviews of that song talking about how it’s transcendental death metal majesty or whatever the fuck. Overall, early Entombed is still pretty great. They’re definitely not Grave-level simple Swedeath.
You are right. The overwhelming effect of the “Phantasm” part in “Left Hand Path” wears off after some time. I still like the song, but it isn’t nearly as great as “Override Of The Overture”.
Regarding the ‘crustiness’ of “Left Hand Path”: the original album ends with “The Truth Beyond”. The CD bonus tracks are more crust (and in my opinion not on par with the crusty songs on the regular album). So maybe Daniel Maarat had these songs in mind, when he said that the album “becomes actual crusty Scandinavian hardcore” in the end.
Yeah I forgot those were bonus tracks as Supposed to Rot also has a count in and The Truth Beyond is not a bookend. The Like an Ever Flowing Stream bonus tracks are much more obviously bonus tracks when listening to the entire album.
Especially in the case of Justifiable Homicide, which is probably the worst song Dismember ever wrote.
That’s only on the sounds like shit digipack reissue and is originally from the worse than Massive Shitting Capacity, Casket Garden EP so it doesn’t count. What Nuclear Blast made their bands do…
I thought it was well known/intentional that they used the Phantasm theme…is their an assumption that it was “stolen” without credit/homage given?
Either way, Phantasm is a great movie that gets better the more I watch it, and LHP is a great album that gets less interesting the more I listen to it. Entombed finally just became a hard rock band with growl-grunts, which is probably what they always wanted to begin with (or at least the members that continued with the band name). At least with Dismember it still sounds like a metal band who ran out of ideas years ago. Not sure which is the more enviable position.
Weirdly, I never listened to Clandestine. LHP, than Wolverine, Shoot straight, and parts of Inferno and such…am I missing anything on Clandestine or is LHP about the best Entombed has?
LHP is a great album, but seems to lose it’s intensity as the album goes on but still a classic nonetheless. Of course the crust punk influence is ever present especially on the old nihilist tunes. But yeah the best track is the title track. I still remember the first time I listened to it and being blown away by the first half of the album.
Left to suffer in the aftermath might be something I pick up if I see a good deal on it, but yeah I’d rather just put in dark recollections.