Entombed Cross

Skogskyrkogården, Stockholm’s Forest Cemetery, is in itself a beautiful spot, but there’s one thing that makes discerning death metal fans from all over the world pilgrimage here: a giant metal cross that was immortalized in seminal death metal band Entombed’s most famous photo.  

Entombed released their iconic debut album Left Hand Path in 1990. It was one of the first albums to use what would come to be known as the “buzzsaw” guitar tone, using detuned electrical guitars, Boss Heavy Metal distortion pedals, and Peavey amplifiers. The innovative sound of the album is today seen as one of the defining moments in Swedish death metal, and many still consider it to be one of the greatest in the genre.

The album booklet featured a number of photos of the band posing in front of a cross in a winter landscape images that would come be the iconic images of the band in a similar way to the images of the Smiths in front of the Salford Lad’s Club, or U2 in front of a joshua tree in California.

The Entombed Cross can be found at Skogskyrkogården in south of Stockholm, a cemetery named a UNESCO world heritage site for its early 20th century architectural landscape design. But for death metal fans from all over the world, all that historical stuff comes second to the fact that some of their growling heroes stood there and made some heavy history.