Of the Swedish bands, At the Gates stand out the most to me for "The Red...", alone, which is just superbly crafted.
Dismember and Entombed were both strong acts but much different in nature than ATG. Much more rhythmic, particularly Entombed. In my mind, of the 11 songs on "Left Hand Path", three really push the boundaries of death metal and are classics ("Bitter Loss", "Drowned", "Left Hand Path"), three or four others are strong though fairly standard death metal numbers, while the rest are quite mediocre.
"Like An Everlasting Stream" is better crafted and much more focused than LHP, which suffers at times from an abundance of kick-ass riffs that really go no where and don't flow together to form a statement. The riff and song craft on LAES is excellent, though in a much more metal, less classical way than At the Gate's best is. The integration of melody is great, a great example being the break in towards the beginning of the title track, which is later repeated in part in the solo. More importantly, the way that the guitar parts, especially the melodic parts, are tied to the lyrics and respond and interact makes for a very direct but fluid flow of music and images. Reminds me of Slayer, how an explosive/chaotic guitar solo is linked to a particaular point of interest in the narrative, like a statement on the world around it.
LAES and prime Entombed both share this artisan-like craft with regards to words and musical language and how they are intertwined. Very simple, but direct and effective language wrapped around musical content in blunt statements on the nature of death and life "An So Is Life", "But Life Goes On".