At the Gates Slaughter of the Soul

At the Gates 'Slaughter of the Soul' (Earache 1995)

Gothenburg based At the Gates have influenced every single strand of heavy music since the release of their master work 'Slaughter of the Soul'. However, as Jeff Walker of Carcass cheekily quipped during their Wacken set; 'Which came first the Chicken or the egg?'. Fair enough, on the way to the Dynamo Festival in 1996 I played this album and assorted metalheads identified 'Blinded by Fear' as being a Carcass song.

The fact was At the Gates did Carcass better than Carcass. They were more immediate and played more like Slayer or a hardcore band rather than Carcass' guitar hero histrionics, which I personally found mind numbing after the excellence of their first two LPs. This wasn't always the case though as they had released three previous LPs through Peaceville and their sub label Deaf records which hadn't grabbed me at all. They were strangely produced and almost arty and they passed me by as I perceived them as being too difficult. Then I saw the video for 'Blinded by Fear' on 'The Power Hour' or 'Heavy Muthas' and I was hooked; this was Slayer playing 'Corporal Jigsore Quandary'.

At the Gates had first come to my notice when they were meant to play with Pringle's band, Inversus, at the Subway. They didn't turn up, which was probably another reason why I didn't really take to them to begin with, but about three years later, in early 1996 we finally got to see them.

For the first time ever we were stopped at the door and asked 'Do you know what's on tonight?' before we convinced the bouncer of our death metal credentials and were let into the cold metallic Cathouse. I may be underestimating, but I doubt if there were 80 people at the gig. At the Gates have since recreated themselves as festival headliners, but at their peak they attracted less than 100 people in da Weeg. Death metal was on its way out, it was, for all intents and purposes, dead.

At the Gates absolutely slayed that night; melodic, punishing, catchy, brilliant. They even included a needless but enjoyable cover of Slayer's 'Captor of Sin' to further enhance the slaying! Unfortunately, I got involved with a Sacred Reich T shirt wearing Weegie 'Sepultra' type who ran directly at me and slammed me through the sparse mosh pit. After a swift kick to my attacker's guts I decided to take it easy, but also thought leaving in haste once the band had finished would be a wise move. Unfortunately, this ruined Pringle's reunion with Malediction's singer in the bogs, but sometimes discretion is the better part of valour.

I've seen At the Gates three times since they reformed and they are always impressive, but they've never recreated that feeling I had about them 17 years ago. I think they also know they can't go back to those glory days and 'Slaughter of the Soul' remains their final recording, bar the 'Purgatory Unleashed' live album recorded at their triumphant Wacken appearance.

'Slaughter of the Soul' is a masterpiece; it's melodic death metal's answer to 'Reign in Blood'. To me it's more reminiscent of Kreator's classic 'Extreme Aggression'; the drums remind me of Ventor and Tomas Lindberg's vocals are so obviously influenced by Mille Petrozza's hateful rasp. I have to say they are two of my favourite vocalists and the performance on this album is second to none for this type of style. A style I have been known to attempt myself on more than a few occasions!

The guitars are razor sharp riff machines complementing each other in the dual Kreator/Slayer/Carcass style perfectly. The sound and technique has been ripped off by every metalcore and melodeath band so many times that you may think 'I've heard this all before' if you're new to this album, but it has to be remembered that this was the first time it was done so perfectly and therefore become the benchmark/template for every band that followed.

Every song is brilliant, but if I had to pick favourites they'd be 'Cold', shamelessly ripped off by my own band, and the incredible 'Nausea'.

There has been a lot of revisionism regarding At the Gates and their impact at the time this album came out. In reality, they only got big after they'd split up, but that doesn't take away from how great this album really is.

Peace