In The Backyard Of The Record Collection (7): Entombed - Clandestine

I encountered this record when I was in ... what was that? 8th grade? Or was it 10th grade? Must have been 10th grade, I think I got this one in 1992 through a friend who was introducing me to all kinds of hard music. He started out with stuff like Gang Green or Sodom, but this little gem stuck with me through all the years. At first I only had a cassette with the record and I only found out about the great cover later.
Back then when I was thinking of Death Metal I always thought of pure noise with growling vocals noone could understand. The kind of "music" my parents warned me about. I think I once got a copy of Morbid Angel's "Blessed Are The Sick", a record I today consider to be a great piece and a Death Metal classic, but back then I wasn't able to listen to this at all. So when I was given "Clandestine" I wasn't expecting much although the classmate was praising this thing all the way.
The voice on the record was what got me hooked instantly. This wasn't anything like what I've heard before. Hard, yet you were able to undertand what the fellow was "singing". He was growling, true, but this was different. And the the guitar sounds. This crunching tune was and still is brilliant. To me this had a lot more of a punk feeling than all the other metal records I was listening to at that time. I was always annyed by long and boring guitar solos noone really wanted to listen to. But here there was just plain and brutal music without too many extravaganza. The only thing I found a little disappointing was that "Clandestine" only had 9 songs. I would have liked to have more.
I somehow got my hands on some merchandise later and I was happy that I had a sweat shirt and a T-shirt with the picture of the LP. The sweat shirt disappeared somehwre along the way, but the T-shirt is still in my possession. It's a bit small and worn out, but I still cherish it, haha.
I didn't really get into what Entombed were doing after that great record. The "Hollow Man" EP and the "Wolverine Blues" LP weren't my stuff anymore and by today I have completely lost track of what they are doing now. I just lost interest. Still "Clandestine" and - although I don't like that one as much - "Left Hand Path", their debut are two of my all time favourite records. I own some other Swedish Death Metal records like Dismember "Like An Everflowing Stream" or Unleashed "Where No Life Dwells", but nothing ever topped Entombed at that time.