Entry 634 - At the Gates - Slaughter of the Soul

Style: Melodic death metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: The human condition

Thoughts: 

"We are blind,
To the worlds within us,
Waiting to be born"

The first time I heard those words I was about seventeen years old. I had heard many good things about At the Gates and their final album Slaughter of the Soul, but I had never sought it out. I found the album sitting on a rack in the middle of a mall and decided to buy it blindly. This is probably one of the best blind buys I've done in my entire life.

By the time Blinded by Fear came rushing though my speakers I was blown away. At the end of the song I was headbanging like crazy. The title track came on three minutes later and by the time Thomas says "GO!" I was sold: this was one of the greatest albums I had ever heard.

So does this melodic death metal classic hold up nearly thirty years later?  I think it does. The album maintains a rare quality throughout the entirety of the album. The riffs balance the brutality of death metal with the speed of thrash and the melodies of NWOBHM, though not to the extent that a band like In Flames was doing at the time.

While the album sometimes verges on being one dimensional with it's riffing style and delivery there are several parts that break up the formula. Cold is the first departure, especially the instrumental part of the song. The album is further fleshed out by two instrumental tracks, my favorite being the epic closer.

The highlight here for me though is Thomas' vocals. These things are unlike anything I've heard in extreme music. Instantly recognizable in whatever band he's in. He's got a combination of a typical death metal growl, a howl, and black metal shrieks. They are bone chilling and give the album an extreme edge that would be lost with any other singer. 

Slaughter of the Soul was the last album from these guys for nearly two decades. For the longest time I thought it was the last one we were ever going to get from the band. It was also my favorite for many many years, until I truly sat down with the debut and let that one win me over. That said, Slaughter remains a great melodic death metal album, and acts as a standard for the genre.

Written December 11th 2023