UMUR "Slaughter of the Soul" is the fourth full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act At the Gates. The album was released through Earache Records in November 1995. It´s the successor to "Terminal Spirit Disease" from 1994 and it would be the last album release by At the Gates before their split-up in 1996. The band were at the height of their success and had their international breakthrough with "Slaughter of the Soul", but after touring heavily in support of the album (including a couple of US tours), the Björler brothers (Anders on guitars and Jonas on bass) decided to leave At the Gates, and the remaining members didn´t feel they could continue without them. The Björler brothers and drummer Adrian Erlandsson would soon after form The Haunted.

Stylistically the material on "Slaughter of the Soul" is the most powerful, trimmed, and mature version of At the Gates. Gone are the odd musical experiments of the first two albums, and the material inconsistency of "Terminal Spirit Disease" (1994), and what´s left is the sharpest, most melodic, rewarding, and intriguing release of their original run. Lead vocalist Tomas Lindberg still sounds like he has just swallowed a plateful of broken glass with his high pitched almost desperate sounding growling vocal style and the band are very well playing delivering one death/thrashy riff after another, and loads of melodic leads and harmonies. The rhythm section drive the music forward in a powerful energetic fashion, and it´s definitely one of those albums where it´s audible that the band members felt they had composed something special, and that they needed to convey that in the most intense way possible.

This may first and foremost be a melodic death metal release, but many of the riffs on the album actually belong in thrash metal territory, making "Slaughter of the Soul" quite the interesting release in terms of the fast-paced rhythm guitar riffs. While the tracks are not exactly experimental or anything in that ballpark, At the Gates still manage to incorporate enough non vers/chorus parts to keep the songs interesting, which is also helped along by the many tempo changes during the tracks. "Slaughter of the Soul" also features atmospheric parts and while it may not initially sound like it, the tracks are varied and memorable and have the potential to grow on you.

"Slaughter of the Soul" features a powerful, detailed, and well sounding production, which suits the material perfectly, and upon conclusion it´s a high quality release by At the Gates. a 4.5 star (90%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Terminal Spirit Disease" is the third full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act At the Gates. The album was released through Peaceville Records in July 1994. It´s the successor to "With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness" from 1993 and features one lineup change since the predecessor as guitarist Alf Svensson has been replaced by Martin Larsson. "Terminal Spirit Disease" was originally intented to be released as an EP, but label pressure meant it ended up being released as a full-length album. It´s a combined studio and live release though, as the first six tracks are new studio recordings and the three closing tracks are live recordings of "All Life Ends", "The Burning Darkness", and "Kingdom Gone". All three previously appeared in studio versions on the band´s first two albums. So calling "Terminal Spirit Disease" a full-length studio album is a bit of a stretch, but that´s how it´s catalogued.

Stylistically the listener is treated to melodic death metal with the distinct sounding high pitched snarling/growling vocals of Tomas Lindberg in front. At the Gates display a more streamlined and tuned version of their style on this release, and the experiments of the first two albums are nowhere to be found. At the Gates hit a good balance between aggression/brutality and melody and catchiness on this release. While it´s not ideal with three live tracks of previously released material on what is tagged a studio release, the live tracks are well performed and also feature a well sounding production.

So upon conclusion "Terminal Spirit Disease" is quality melodic death metal release, and the studio tracks show a slightly more mature version of At the Gates. Not all issues from the previous releases have been weeded out, and personally I could for example have wished for a more varied vocal approach (a deeper growl here and there wouldn´t have hurt). Lindberg´s tortured screaming vocal style can be a bit hard on the ears. It´s a subjective opinion though, and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is still deserved.

UMUR "With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act At the Gates. The album was released through Deaf Records in May 1993, a little under a year after the release of the band´s debut full-length studio album "The Red in the Sky Is Ours" from July 1992. At the Gates formed in 1990 after Grotesque disbanded. They were part of the fertile Gothenburg scene of the early 90s, which also spawned artists like In Flames and Dark Tranquillity.

Stylistically the material on "With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness" continue the melodic death metal style of the debut album, but it´s generally a bit more streamlined and there are less musical experiments. It´s obvious the band have honed their songswriting craft and have gone for a more consistent musical style. The music features loads of melodic guitar work from the two guitarists, varied drumming, and the distinct sounding high pitched raw vocals by lead vocalist Tomas Lindberg in front. In those days he was a highly unusual sounding vocalist in a death metal act, which made At the Gates stand out from the pack.

"With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness" features a sound production which is as thin sounding as the sound production on the debut album. You would have thought that a better sounding production would have been a priority on a sophomore release, but overall the sound hasn´t improved much, and to my ears it´s a slight issue, which prevents me from enjoying the album as much as I probably could have. Lindberg´s vocals can also be a bit grating on the ears after a while, so it´s the intriguing songwriting ideas and the high level musicianship which are the greatest assets of the album. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

lukretion I am a late comer to the At the Gates appreciation club, having paid attention to the Swedish icons only since their 2018 album To Drink from the Night Itself. Therefore, when their new record, The Nightmare of Being, was released earlier this year, I finally decided to purchase the CD to properly check it out. The reason why the last two records caught my attention is probably also the reason why some oldtime supporters are giving the band a hard time in specialized webzines and review sites: slowly but surely, the Swedes have started weaving conspicuous progressive rock/metal into their sound, noticeably bastardizing the melodic death metal style they once contributed to create.

The Nightmare of Being brings together three different strands of musical influences. The core of the music is still melodic death metal, built on a foundation of fast guitar riffs that are both razor-sharp and exquisitely melodic, pounding and hypertight drumrolls (Adrian Erlandsson puts in a massive performance behind the drumkit), and Tomas Lindberg’s unhinged, high-pitched growls. While in a few songs At the Gates seem happy to not stray too far from the style that made them famous (most evidently in the initial three songs of the record), elsewhere they enrich the melodeath assault with hints of 1970s hard prog as well as dark wave and gothic rock, conjuring up a hybrid sonic world that it is hard not to find enthralling.

The prog rock influences hark back to the sound of the darkest end of the spectrum of 1970s bands, such as King Crimson and Van der Graaf Generator. This is conveyed through the use of the mellotron and other eerie keyboard sounds, as well as sombre real strings and woodwinds arrangements (“Touched by the White Hands of Death”, “The Fall into Time”, “The Abstract Enthroned”). Meanwhile, “Garden of Cyrus” introduces a jazzy saxophone lead, which again brings to mind King Crimson (and particularly their Red album). It should be said that At the Gates are not the only nor the first extreme metal band to look back at the dark progressive rock of the 1970s for inspiration. Ihsahn, Enslaved, and Opeth are three prominent examples of bands that have followed the same path several years ahead of the Swedes. Moreover, these bands have definitely pushed the prog rock influences much more prominently into their sound compared to At the Gates, which instead use the 1970s heritage only to add hints of a new dimension to their artform rather than as a way to completely revolutionize it, like Opeth have done for instance. It is nevertheless fascinating to hear violins, flutes and clarinets weaving in and out of aggressive death metal riffs, especially in tracks like “The Fall into Time” where the band have truly challenged themselves to write music that stretches well beyond the classic melodeath canon. Elsewhere, At the Gates make a more vanilla use of the barrage of classical instrumentation they have at their disposal, essentially as an atmospheric prelude or interlude to their more conventional death metal style. Tracks like “Touched by the White Hands of Death” and “The Abstract Enthroned” are slightly underwhelming in this respect, and they do not strike me as neither very original nor particularly accomplished.

The other element that emerges through the 10 tracks of The Nightmare of Being is an evident penchant for dark wave and gothic rock. This is most apparent on the oppressive yet groovy “Cosmic Pessimism”, a track that builds on a bouncy clean guitar riff apparently inspired to krautrock and bands like Neu! and Tangerine Dream, for what is one of the standout moments of the whole album. Elsewhere, the gothic undertones surface through the use of clean guitar breaks and especially Tomas Lindberg’s half-spoken vocal croon, a style he uses quite often on this record, reminding me at times of Dark Tranquillity’s Mikael Stanne.

With all these disparate ingredients thrown into the mix, The Nightmare of Being makes for a varied and engaging listening experience. Not everything on the album is gold, and in fact there are more than a couple of episodes that feel a tad too run-of-the-mill and unremarkable (“The Paradox”, the title-track, “Touched by the White Hands of Death” “Eternal Winter of Reason”). However, when inspiration strikes them, At the Gates manage to give us some striking pieces of music, perfectly balanced between raw aggression and sophisticated melancholy. “Garden of Cyrus”, “The Fall into Time”, “Cult of Salvation” and “Cosmic Pessimism” are all little gems of modern melodic death metal that cleverly push the boundaries of the genre without straying too far from its core essence. The Nightmare of Being is a bit too patchy to be heralded as a contemporary masterpiece, but it nevertheless shows that there is still creative blood running in the icy veins of the Swedish combo, and it will certainly be interesting to see where they will decide to bring this creativity next.

ssmarcus While At the Gates' output over the past decade or so since their reunion has undoubtedly been enjoyable, I think all but their die hard fans would agree that it has fallen short of the expectations one would have set for one of the most enduringly influential death metal bands of the 90's. But hey, there are death metal acts far less competent and important that have managed to string together a several decades-long career churning out the same recycled noise. If At the Gates wanted to spend the rest of their career riding the trends that, at the start of it all, were largely of their own making anyway, it would do nothing to tarnish their legacy.

And yet, with the release of The Nightmare of Being, At the Gates have announced to the world that they have no interest in sitting on their laurels and letting the opportunity to keep making worthwhile music this late into their careers slip away.

The Nightmare of Being starts off unassumingly with track 3, the title track, only beginning to tease what would follow. But from the tracks "Garden of Cyrus" through "The Fall into Time," the band strings together arguably the most unique and forward thinking stretch of music of their entire careers with instrumentation and chord progressions you would hardly ever expect to find on a record like this. The progressive ambition caked into these tracks belies a band both confident in their abilities and rife with inspiration. As front man and co-songwriter Tomas Lindberg told Loudwire, bringing in Jonas Stålhammar, a guitarist with a strong prog-rock foundation, to replace founding member Anders Björler enabled the group stretch their wings in ways they would not have previously dared to try.

The album's weakness is that it just doesn't commit enough to this new direction. The record is bookended by fairly standard melo-death fare. Its mesial section stands out, like a juicy and tender piece of meat between coarser cuts - edible but inferior. Still, The Nightmare of Being has succeeded in stoking my excitement for whatever At the Gates has in store for us going forward. How many veteran metal bands can we actually say that about?