Entry 359 - At the Gates - The Red Sky is Ours

 

I really love the early 90's extreme metal scene. There were no rules, bands did whatever the fuck they wanted. Who knew what sounded good and what didn't? No one did, no one knew what the expectations were from extreme music. They just made whatever they wanted.

At the Gates debut album is one of those albums that adhered to no rules, served no master... they unmistakably were doing their own thing. Was it extreme? Hell yes, still is. Was it a bit hap hazard? You bet. Was it good? Unequivocally.

The thing that makes this album is the variety in the riffing. There are technical riffs, there are melodic riffs, there are slow riffs, there are riffs that want to rip your fucking face off. They are all strung together in such a way that the song is loosely tied together. Sometimes they vary a theme, other times they have nothing to do with each other. It's insane and it's great.

Much like some other bands in the early 90's extreme metal scene... there was really no blue print for how to do this. Bands just pulled form whatever influences struck their fancy and they made it more extreme, added harsh vocals, more distortion, more chaos. I mean, At the Gates had a session member paying violin for this release... there's only a few instances of it, but its another one of those "we don't care, we like it so its in" moments.

After this release the band would change their style rather significantly on With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness. That album is equally experimental but it doesn't hit me as hard as this one does. The band would continue to evolve with each release, but it was on the debut where they put their heart into the music more so than anything that was to follow. This is simply a Swedish death metal masterpiece.