At The Gates "Slaughter Of The Soul (2002 Reissue, USA, Earache Records, MOSH143CD)"

Slaughter of the Soul is the fourth studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band At the Gates, released on 14 November 1995 by Earache Records. It was their last album before their eleven-year breakup from 1996 to 2007. Slaughter of the Soul is considered a landmark in melodic death metal and played a major role in popularizing the Gothenburg scene, alongside The Jester Race by In Flames and The Gallery by Dark Tranquillity. The album was recorded and mixed in Studio Fredman, early 1995.

Music journalist T Coles described the album's sound as "melodic and weird", saying that At the Gates were "cleaner" than fellow Swedish death metal band Entombed, yet "dirtier" than the technical death metal bands of the United States.

Andy LaRocque's neo-classical guest solo on "Cold" was widely acclaimed as one of the greatest metal solos and guitarist Anders Björler admitted in 2007 that he still could not play it properly.

"Blinded by Fear" was covered by The Haunted (composed largely of ex-At the Gates members) on their Japanese version of their live/double disc album Live Rounds in Tokyo and was also covered by Fleshgod Apocalypse on their Mafia EP. The song also appeared in the game Rock Band 2 as downloadable content.

According to Vlad Nichols of Ultimate Guitar, At the Gates "officiated the birth of the characteristic Gothenburg sound" with Slaughter of the Soul.

Tracks from the album have made appearances in several video games.

• "Blinded by Fear" was made available as downloadable content for the Rock Band video game series on March 28, 2008. Later, it was included in the game's retail "Metal Track Pack" add-on content disc, released on September 22, 2009 in North America. The song is considered one of the most difficult songs in the series to perform on drums, due to its fast tempo.
• The title track is featured in both Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned and Tony Hawk's Proving Ground.

A 2002 Reissue contained 11 tracks from the original 1995 release of Slaughter of the Soul, plus 6 bonus audio tracks. Three of the bonus tracks were cover songs, two were demo tracks, and 1 was a previously unreleased track, recorded during the Slaughter of the Soul sessions. The 2006 reissue contained everything from the 2002 reissue, but also included an additional bonus DVD, which featured a 35-minute behind-the-scenes documentary as the highlight. The 2008 reissue contains everything from the 2002 and 2006 rereleases (all audio and DVD material), as well as additional DVD footage—an eight-song live set, recorded in Kraków, Poland on December 30, 1995.

Reviews for Slaughter of the Soul have been highly positive, acclaiming the album as a landmark record in the development of the Swedish death metal scene. AllMusic's Steve Huey awarded the album five stars and called it an "excellent example of Gothenburg-style melodic death metal, and certainly the band's best and most focused album to date." Rock Hard, however, thinks the band has become interchangeable with its many clones, and Deathmetal.org labels it At the Gates' sellout album, sounding like "Metallica attempting ...And Justice For All in a stylistic mashup between Iron Maiden and Judas Priest during Painkiller."

In 2005, the album was ranked number 300 in Rock Hard magazine's book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time. Metal Injection ranked Slaughter of the Soul eighth on their list "Top 10 Influential Heavy Metal Albums". The album was inducted into the Decibel Magazine Hall of Fame in March 2005, being the second album overall to receive such award. In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked Slaughter of the Soul as 79th on their list of "The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time". The same magazine later ranked the title track number eighty-seven on their list of "The 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs of All Time"

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Lindberg; all music is composed by A. Björler and J. Björler, except where noted.

1. "Blinded by Fear" A. Björler 3:12
2. "Slaughter of the Soul" 3:02
3. "Cold" 3:27
4. "Under a Serpent Sun" A. Björler 4:00
5. "Into the Dead Sky" (instrumental) 2:12
6. "Suicide Nation" A. Björler 3:35
7. "World of Lies" A. Björler, J. Björler, Larsson 3:35
8. "Unto Others" 3:11
9. "Nausea" A. Björler 2:23
10. "Need" 2:36
11. "The Flames of the End" (instrumental) A. Björler, Johansson, Lindberg 2:57

Total length: 34:10

2002 reissue bonus tracks

1. "Legion" (Slaughter Lord cover) 3:54
2. "The Dying" (Unreleased track from Slaughter of the Soul sessions) 3:18
3. "Captor of Sin" (Slayer cover) Hanneman, King 3:19
4. "Unto Others" ('95 Demo) 3:06
5. "Suicide Nation" ('95 Demo) 3:22
6. "Bister Verklighet" (No Security cover) 1:55

Total time: 53:09

"Into the Dead Sky" and "The Flames of the End" are instrumentals, but, in the booklet, there are comments for the tracks.

Track 12 is a cover of the australian band, aka Slaughter Lord and others.

Track 13 is a previously unreleased song from the album sessions.

A video was made for Blinded by Fear.

Recording information:

Recorded and mixed in Studio Fredman, Gothenburg, Sweden from May-July 1995.

Fredrik Nordström − production

At the Gates – co-production

Noel Summerville − mastering

Kristian Wåhlin − artwork, logo

Absolute Design Associates – additional artwork and layout

Frequent Form – logo concept

Studio Fredman, Gothenburg, Sweden – recording, mixing

Transfermation – mastering

At The Gates "The Nightmare Of Being (Germany, Century Media, 19439864942)"

Swedish Melodic Death Metal band At the Gates released their seventh studio album, The Nightmare of Being, on 2 July 2021. While the album remains rooted in the Gothenburg metal tradition, it also features a wider range of musical styles, influences, and instrumentation. The ideas in the album are influenced by the writings of horror philosophers such as Thomas Ligotti and Eugene Thacker.

Tracklist:

1. Spectre of Extinction 04:49   
2. The Paradox 04:43   
3. The Nightmare of Being 03:49
4. Garden of Cyrus 04:25
5. Touched by the White Hands of Death 04:07   
6. The Fall into Time 06:45   
7. Cult of Salvation 04:24  
8. The Abstract Enthroned 04:26   
9. Cosmic Pessimism 04:31  
10. Eternal Winter of Reason 03:38  

Time:  45:37

All music & lyrics by Björler/Lindberg Redan. The lyrics to track 9 are taken from Eugene Thacker's book "Cosmic Pessimism".

Official music video:

- The Nightmare of Being

- Garden of Cyrus

- The Paradox

- Spectre of Extinction

Recording information:

Produced by At the Gates.

Drums were recorded from November 9-14th, 2020 in Studio Gröndal.

Guitars and bass were recorded between November 17-29th, 2020 in Sonic Train Studio, Varberg.

Vocals and saxophone recorded between December 1st-6th, 2020 at Welfare Sounds, Gothenburg.

Classical guitar recorded in Morgantown Music Fjugesta in December 2020.

Strings and brass/woodwind instruments were recorded on December 14th, 2020 at Soundlab, Örebro.

Mixed and mastered at Fascination Street Studios.

Various Artists "Deaf Metal Sampler (Germany, Deaf Records, DEAF 12CD)"

A Sampler Compilation released by Deaf Records in 1993 showcasing all the bands on their roster.

Most tracks are from albums, but some are *exclusive tracks (Dissection, Chorus Of Ruin, Nightfall, Maimed & Eucharist) and the Doomed song is from a rare single.

Tracklist:

1. Vital Remains - War In Paradise
2. Banished - Cast Out The Flesh
3. Dissection - Cold Winds*
4. Morta Skuld - In The Shadows
5. Chorus Of Ruin - Headstone*
6. Nightfall - Enormous Anthem Of The Death*
7. Impaler - Repel Your Faith
8. Therion - The Return
9. Maimed - Engulfed In Cysts*
10. At The Gates - The Architects
11. Accidental Suicide - Method Of Murder
12. Eucharist - The View*
13. Pitch Shifter - Landfill
14. Doomed - Witches
15. Prophecy Of Doom - Insanity Reigns Supreme

Tracks 3, 5, 6, 9 and 12 are exclusive to this release. Includes a clip-off token for a free poster offer.

Various Artists "No Peace At All"

No Peace At All is a Metal compilation by Peaceville Records, released in 1993.

Track list:

1. My Dying Bride The Songless Bird (Edit) 4:49 
2. Anathema Sleepless 4:10 
3. At The Gates Ever Opening Flower 4:59 
4. Kong Results 4:50 
5. G.G.F.H. Hands 4:04 
6. Tekton Motor Corp. The Horizon (Edit) 5:01 
7. Drug Free America One Alien Nation Under A Groove (Edit) 4:34 
8. Ship Of Fools Spacehopper / Star Jumper (Edit) 5:15 
9. Pentagram Broken Vows 4:38 
10. Vital Remains Isolated Magick 5:10 
11. Autopsy  Orgy In Excrements 1:57 
12. Morta Skuld Different Breeds 3:49 
13. Banished Enter The Confines 3:21 
14. Darkthrone To Walk The Infernal Fields 7:36 

Distributed By – Rough Trade Distribution Credits 

Artwork By – SV Bell 

Compiled By – Hammy Layout – Dave Pybus Notes 

(c) Vile Music 

(p) Peaceville 1993 

All tracks published by Vile Music (P.R.S.)

At The Gates "At War With Reality"

At War with Reality is the fifth studio album and major label debut by Swedish melodic death metal band At the Gates, released on 28 October 2014. It is the band's first album since Slaughter of the Soul (1995), marking the longest gap between two studio albums in their career, though the reason for this length of time was the band's previous break up and for many years despite their eventual reunion, they initially had no plans to record another album. It is a concept album based on the literary genre of magic realism. At War with Reality received positive reviews from music critics, and music videos were released for "Death and the Labyrinth", "Heroes and Tombs", The Book of Sand (The Abomination)" and "The Night Eternal". The album is the band's last studio album to feature co-founding guitarist Anders Björler, who had departed from the band in March 2017.

After breaking up in 1996, At the Gates announced on October 18, 2007 that they would reunite for several reunion shows in the summer of 2008. Throughout July 2008, they toured the US and Canada on what was dubbed the "Suicidal Final Tour", and the last date of the tour took place in Athens, Greece, with guest The Ocean on September 21, 2008. Despite playing a handful of successful reunion shows, members of At the Gates stated that they would not record a new album, suggesting that it would be "pointless to release something more than ten years after Slaughter of the Soul."

After a two-year hiatus, At the Gates announced their second reunion in December 2010, and that they would do a "limited run of select shows" in 2011. They also announced that they would "stick to the initial promise of not making any more music." Asked in October 2012 about the possibility of new At the Gates material, frontman Tomas Lindberg replied, "Well, basically, I've learned never to say never. We said we'd never do any more shows whatsoever and now we're doing shows [again]. 2008 was the last tour we were going to do and now we are doing more [shows]. I learned not to say never you know."

On January 21, 2014, At the Gates released a distorted video on YouTube showing lines of lyrics on it, followed by text saying "2014", possibly hinting toward possible lyrics for an upcoming album. Six days later, the band revealed on Facebook via a new cover photo and profile picture, that they had signed to Century Media Records, and would begin recording their fifth album At War with Reality in June/July for a tentative October/November 2014 release.

On August 14, the band announced they had completed the album, and that it would be released on October 28.

In a November 2014 interview, Lindberg was asked whether At War with Reality is At the Gates' final album or the band will continue recording. His response was, "We can't say really. We have no plans of stopping but we've broken promises before so it's best not to say anything." The band have since shown interest in releasing a follow up album. They later confirmed this would not be the final album and a brand new follow-up album, To Drink from the Night Itself was released in 2018.

They concluded the 'At War With Reality' world tour in August 2016, which had run for almost 2 years following its release.

The quote on track 1 "El altar del dios desconocido" are taken from the novel On Heroes and Tombs written by Argentine writer Ernesto Sabato.

Upon release, At War with Reality received universal acclaim. Ray Van Horn, Jr. of Blabbermouth.net rated the album eight-and-a-half stars out of ten, and called it "probably the most anticipated metal album" of 2014. He finished his review by saying that "At the Gates make mincemeat out of this album and efficiently plot most of their songs to wrap in far less time than their acolytes. The average song on At War with Reality clocks in between two-and-a-half and four minutes, yet all feel like far more has transcended. That's something special. Inadvertently and unfairly credited for the ascension of metalcore, At the Gates releases a demonstrative comeback album that's simply metal, forget the 'core-rellations."

At War with Reality was At the Gates' first album to chart in multiple countries. The album peaked at number three on the Swedish chart Sverigetopplistan, and reached number 53 on the Billboard 200.

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Tomas Lindberg except where noted; all music is composed by Anders Björler and Jonas Björler

1. "El Altar del Dios Desconocido" ("The Altar of the Unknown God") L:Ernesto Sabato A.Björler 1:06
2. "Death and the Labyrinth" A.Björler 2:33
3. "At War with Reality" A.Björler 3:09
4. "The Circular Ruins" A.Björler / J.Björler 4:28
5. "Heroes and Tombs" A.Björler / J.Björler 3:59
6. "The Conspiracy of the Blind" J.Björler / A.Björler 3:19
7. "Order from Chaos" A.Björler / J.Björler 3:26
8. "The Book of Sand (The Abomination)" A.Björler 4:28
9. "The Head of the Hydra" J.Björler / A.Björler 3:38
10. "City of Mirrors" (instrumental) J.Björler / A.Björler 2:06
11. "Eater of Gods" A.Björler 3:51
12. "Upon Pillars of Dust" A.Björler 2:39
13. "The Night Eternal" J.Björler / A.Björler 5:37

Total length: 44:16

Comes with 20 page booklet.

Music videos ware made for The Night Eternal, "Death and the Labyrinth", "Heroes and Tombs" and "The Book of Sand (The Abomination)".

Official live video:

"The Circular Ruins".

"El altar del dios desconocido" lyrics are taken from Ernesto Sabato's novel Sobre héroes y tumbas (On Heroes and Tombs).

Dedicated to the Memory of Henrik Frykman (Bassist of Disfear).

Recording information:

Recorded at Studio Fredman (Gothenburg, Sweden), June 24th - July 18th, 2014.

Narration, by Anton Reisenegger from Pentagram Chile recorded at HVR Studios, Suffolk, UK.