Which Albums Contain the Best Swedish Death Metal Songs?
Think you know your death metal? Here are three albums from the early 1990s that every fan of Swedish death metal songs should hear.
Sweden has launched the careers of many metal artists over the decades, from Candlemass to Evergrey and smaller acts such as Zephyra. When it comes to death metal in particular, the country has been a hotbed since the late 1980s. There are so many albums from so many great bands that it was difficult to make this list. With apologies to those that do not appear, here are some albums with Swedish death metal songs that fans will never forget. For more background, see our page about metal bands from Sweden.
The Awakening and Left Hand Path
The Awakening by Merciless combines death metal's intensity and ferocity about as well as anything from the era. Listening to the album, you get the sense of a band that wants to play faster and harder than it is capable of, and that sense of trying so hard is typical of the best death metal from the early 1990s. The fierce vocals and powerful songs on this album have inspired many Swedish death metal bands since.
Entombed's Left Hand Path (1990) is the classic that defined the Stockholm death metal sound. Everybody wanted that sound, and some still do. It was brutal and dirty, with a buzzsaw guitar tone that became the trademark of the Stockholm scene. The song "Drowned" from the album is played on Grand Theft Auto IV's Liberty City Hardcore radio station.
The Astral Sleep
Tiamat's The Astral Sleep (1991) is an obvious choice for a timeless death metal album. Many fans know every lyric, drum beat and note of the band's work from their teenage years, and later albums such as Clouds took the band in a more atmospheric direction. On The Astral Sleep, songs such as "Dead Boys' Choir" and "The Southernmost Voyage" show the atmospheric excellence that was to come, and the melody in the middle of "Ancient Entity" still makes your skin crawl.
