ENTOMBED - Left Hand Path LP (Black Vinyl)

This album incorporates everything a death metal album should have: brutal and fast playing, thoughtful lyrics, and one of the best album-length vocal performances in death metal history. The number of bands this album must have inspired is incalculable, and it couldn't have come at a better time. Entombed carefully walks the line between gore and intelligence with the lyrics, and keeps the album compact enough to not lose its bite. My personal favorites are the title track, "Revel in Flesh," and the short "Supposed to Rot." In reality, though, you could pick any track here: they are all excellent. The way the buzzsaw guitar sound is implemented here was revolutionary for the genre, especially in Sweden, and there really isn't anything about this album that you can complain about. If there was never another death metal album after this, it wouldn't have mattered, this is the apex.