AT THE GATES — To Drink From The Night Itself (review)

AT THE GATES — To Drink From The Night Itself album cover Album · 2018 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"To Drink From The Night Itself" is the sixth full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act At The Gates. The album was released through Century Media Records in May 2018. It´s the successor to "At War with Reality" from 2014 and the final proof that "At War with Reality" wasn´t just a one-off comeback album. At the Gates were indeed back and active again. There´s been one lineup change since the predecessor as guitarist Anders Björler has left and has been replaced by Jonas Stålhammar. Björler left in 2017 as he was tired of touring (he returned to the fold in 2022).

Stylistically the material on "To Drink From The Night Itself" continues the melodic and heavy death metal style of "At War with Reality (2014)", and the album feels like a natural successor to the comeback album. At the Gates are a well playing unit and they are consistent in both quality and style. Those who enjoyed "At War with Reality (2014)" will find a lot to appreciate here too. The musicianship is as mentioned above on a high level and lead vocalist Tomas Lindberg has a distinct sounding voice and growling/screaming delivery. His way of singing and his voice is probably an aquired taste, but he arguably brings an unique element to the band´s sound.

The material are powerful, melodic and heavy death metal, and At the Gates successfully alternate between heavy mid-paced tracks and faster paced tracks, to make "To Drink From The Night Itself" a relatively varied release. The band also incorporate a few atmospheric moments (the narration on "El Altar del Dios Desconocido" and a couple of shorter acoustic/clean guitar sections), which bring even more diversity to the material. There´s a strong melancholic feeling to the music throughout the album, and at times it borders the darkly epic.

"To Drink From The Night Itself" features a well sounding production job, which suits the material well. It´s a detailed production, but it´s not too polished. Upon conclusion "To Drink From The Night Itself" is another high quality release by At the Gates. It´s slightly less interesting than "At War with Reality", and while the songwriting is relatively varied in terms of tempo changes, there´s still a slight atmosphere of monotony to the material, which you only notice if you listen to the album from start to finish. Individually the tracks are all high quality compositions, but to my ears the album as a whole could have prospered from more variation in dynamics and diversity of songwriting ideas. Still a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.
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