At The Gates Slaughter Of The Soul
Earache MOSH143CD 2002
By Russell Garwood
Slaughter Of The Soul is the final album of seminal melodic death metallers At The Gates after this album their premature break up lead to the death of one of the most influential Gothenburg/NWOSDM bands. The short album has now been re-mastered and re-released by Earache with six bonus tracks (demos and covers). The limited edition slipcase includes explanatory liner notes on each track by Tomas Lindberg. There will also be new photos from the bands personal archives. For this recording the line up stood as Tomas Lindberg vocals, guitarists Anders Bjorler (lead) and Martin Larsson (rhythm), Jonas Bjorler on bass and drummer Adrian Erlandsson. By Slaughter Of The Soul the bands sound has changed gone are the violins, frequent time changes, fragmented feel, craziness and complexity that (for me) made their early work so original, demanding and likeable. Instead, the songs are more cohesive, simplistic, lucid, and focused, with a new thrash element helping make this the bands most accessible album.
The guitars are fast and technical with energetic single note melodies and riffs over the down-tuned power chords of the rhythm guitar. Adrians drums are, as ever, precise and speedy, focusing less on blasts and more on double bass, while the vox are more pronounced. These are more screamed than the average death metal growl, and juxtapose the melodic guitars well while supporting the nihilistic lyrics. The bass has relatively little impact and the production, courtesy of Fredrik Nordström, is relatively clear and well balanced, allowing many of the elements to come through. For those new to At The Gates, this, arguably their most accessible album, would be a good place to start listening to the band, and standouts include Slaughter Of The Soul, Cold, World Of Lies and instrumentals Into The Daed Sky and The Flames Of The End. The six bonus tracks stand as follows:
Legion (Australian band Slaughterlord cover)
The Dying (Recorded during the 'Slaughter...' sessions and omitted from the album)
Captor of Sin (Slayer cover recorded for the 'Slaytanic Slaughter' tribute album)
Unto Others (demo '95)
Suicide Nation (demo '95)
Bister Verklighet (Swedish crust act No Security cover)
For those that already have the album, these quite extensive bonuses are all of a relatively high standard and provide interesting listening. Whether they are worth buying the entire album again for, however, depends on how big a fan you are.
Earache MOSH143CD 2002
By Russell Garwood
Slaughter Of The Soul is the final album of seminal melodic death metallers At The Gates after this album their premature break up lead to the death of one of the most influential Gothenburg/NWOSDM bands. The short album has now been re-mastered and re-released by Earache with six bonus tracks (demos and covers). The limited edition slipcase includes explanatory liner notes on each track by Tomas Lindberg. There will also be new photos from the bands personal archives. For this recording the line up stood as Tomas Lindberg vocals, guitarists Anders Bjorler (lead) and Martin Larsson (rhythm), Jonas Bjorler on bass and drummer Adrian Erlandsson. By Slaughter Of The Soul the bands sound has changed gone are the violins, frequent time changes, fragmented feel, craziness and complexity that (for me) made their early work so original, demanding and likeable. Instead, the songs are more cohesive, simplistic, lucid, and focused, with a new thrash element helping make this the bands most accessible album.
The guitars are fast and technical with energetic single note melodies and riffs over the down-tuned power chords of the rhythm guitar. Adrians drums are, as ever, precise and speedy, focusing less on blasts and more on double bass, while the vox are more pronounced. These are more screamed than the average death metal growl, and juxtapose the melodic guitars well while supporting the nihilistic lyrics. The bass has relatively little impact and the production, courtesy of Fredrik Nordström, is relatively clear and well balanced, allowing many of the elements to come through. For those new to At The Gates, this, arguably their most accessible album, would be a good place to start listening to the band, and standouts include Slaughter Of The Soul, Cold, World Of Lies and instrumentals Into The Daed Sky and The Flames Of The End. The six bonus tracks stand as follows:
Legion (Australian band Slaughterlord cover)
The Dying (Recorded during the 'Slaughter...' sessions and omitted from the album)
Captor of Sin (Slayer cover recorded for the 'Slaytanic Slaughter' tribute album)
Unto Others (demo '95)
Suicide Nation (demo '95)
Bister Verklighet (Swedish crust act No Security cover)
For those that already have the album, these quite extensive bonuses are all of a relatively high standard and provide interesting listening. Whether they are worth buying the entire album again for, however, depends on how big a fan you are.
