Terminal Spirit Disease

Heard of the Gothenburg metal sound? Well this is it right here. You've found it. Well done. It's nice to think that it existed in such a fully blossomed form in 1994 already. Plenty of the Scandinavian bands had put the melodic with the death metal in "melodic death metal" and each one was doing their particular thing, In Flames or Dark Tranquility to name a couple, but this is when that trademark sound came to fruition.

We all know which one that is: a generous regimen of hard-driving thrash, groovy low-tuned death n' roll blues, and melodic embellishments to sustain the poetic nature of this style. Take this album and project it 10 years into the future and not only would it not feel dated but it would thrive, as if in its natural environment. It's been studied and copied to death and the early 2000's were swarming with more or less common copycats.

Kudos to those guys for delivering the definitive blueprint to a style that's been both very distinctive and highly popularized by various bands in different parts of the world after Sweden in the mid 90's. But this is boring as shit. It's well executed, well framed and after two tentative experiments the band finally put together a full album with proper songs (that don't feel like experimental fiddling, but songs). But boy is this a predictable album.

Its spontaneous effect is surely more to have the audience bobble their heads to its playful melodic mood, than anything even close to dramatic the way it claims with titles like that. 'Forever Blind' - Forever Pints, more like. A lot of the riffs are straight-up practice material: the rhythm plays a basic progression and the lead doodles up some straightforward melody on that, or they start at a root-note and play whatever consecutive notes and then go to another root-note and play a couple of consecutive notes there. The riffs - sometimes - have drive. But they never lift past a well visible ceiling. They're also sometimes lethargic (most of 'The Fevered Circle', that freaking snooze-fest). The intensity and emotional level are kept in check the whole time. This is about the heaviness and a bit of musical rime. That's it.

Anyways to save us all some time here and instead of delving any further into the vulnerable target that is the composition on display, suffice to say the guys may've been so overwhelmed by coming up with a brand new sound that they forgot to actually fill the mold with the right material. Hey, at least they brought the chassis for 'Slaughter of the Soul', which came out a mere year later, and the full plans for (kind of) an entire sub-genre.

At The Gates are a standout from the Gothenburg melodic death metal scene, especially when compared to their colleagues "In Flames" and "Dark Tranquility". They are at the upfront of riff driven aggression and relentless brutality, that would later be solidified on their infamous 4th studio album "Slaughter Of The Soul". I am neither one of the people who will hail this record, or their first record "The Red In The Sky Is Ours", which is a complex Swedish death metal album in it's own right, as their musical peak. Instead, I find that it was the albums in between that really put forth the best of this band, namely Terminal Spirit Disease.

This record is nearly perfect, not just in it's own right, but in the entire sub genre of melodic death metal. It's a careful balance between melody and brutality that a lot of other melodeath bands fail to get right (namely In Flames). In Flames have released some great records (in their own right!), but they don't really represent what melodic death metal should mean. It's a combination of the aggression and brutality of death metal and the melodies of traditional heavy metal with added melancholy. Terminal Spirit Disease perfects this in every single way possible.

This entire album is tuned to B standard which seems to be the standard for a lot of Swedish death metal in general. It adds a crushing element to the guitars that just cannot be found in any other tuning and it works exceptionally well. This being said, the riffs across the entire album are a perfect blend of melody and brutality. Everything from tremolo riffs (which seem to be the dominating type) to their signature "At The Gates Core" style of riffing can be found, and they each work perfectly to deliver aggression and melancholy at the same time. There's not much else to be said about them, it's just perfect for a melodic death metal record, and each riff is crushing and powerful in it's own right. The main riff in the title track being an example of some aggressive tremolo picked energy, with a touch of melancholy, and a touch of melody. Neither of these three elements seem to overpower each other throughout the album and it's amazing to see how in tune they are. It just works so incredibly well.

The songwriting seems to have become somewhat simplified since their first three releases, but it's appropriate considering the big emphasis on riffage and melody throughout this album. Each song feels just the right length and the passages flow seamlessly into each other. The tempo changes throughout are just so well done it's hard not to gush and fanboy over them. The way each track switches from an aggressive death metal riff over a crushing blast beat, into a beautiful melody that cascades the senses. It's extremely well done and very pleasant for the listener. This coupled with Tomas's shrieking vocals that seem to hold even more character after each tempo and riff change; it's the ultimate play on melody and aggression. His vocals hold so much power and emotion through each track and they work so well with the songwriting. It damn near sounds like he's being tortured and screaming from grief and pain throughout the entire album. It's no surprise that he's become one of the most well respected death metal vocalists to ever perform.

What really seems to make this album so enjoyable however, is the much rawer production as compared to their later works. It brings out every bassline, every double bass, and adds a sharp edge to the guitars; all the while bringing out Tomas's deathly shrieks on each track. It gives this record immense character and brutality, and really makes it feel just like what melodic death metal should strive to be; death metal that is melodic. The production is definitely a step into this direction.

Each track on Terminal Spirit Disease manages to hold something unique, whether it's through utter aggression (such as in "The Beautiful Wound"), or through melancholy and sadness (such as in the acoustic instrumental track "And The World Returned"); each one adds a different change in pace, while maintaining the principles the album was written on. They use elements such as a violin in the intro of "The Swarm" beautifully, without becoming gimmicky or unnecessary. The intro to that song is beautiful and filled with sorrowful emotions that can bring tears to even the burliest of death metal fans. The lyrics on each song are well written and near poetic quality. They do manage to stay more spiritual, than overly edgy as they did on "Slaughter Of The Soul" which definitely makes me more fond of this record.

Terminal Spirit Disease boasts a total of 9 songs, and a total run time of almost 35 minutes. The only issue is that three of these are live songs, which are excellent performances in their own right; the entire band seems to be firing on all cylinders throughout each live track. The problem is that with only 6 relatively short songs left behind, there isn't enough content in this album to suffice. Instead of live tracks, a better choice would have been to replace them with more original songs written for the album, or even to keep the album shortened as a whole.

But alas, each track is perfect in every way possible, and this record as a whole defines what melodic death metal should be. Melody, rawness, aggression, melancholy, and character. The fact that such a defining and amazing record didn't garner more attention and praise over other At The Gates albums is a great shock to me, considering how utterly well crafted it is. The riffs are some of the best of the genre and each track sounds fresh and original, what more could you possibly ask for? Maybe a better album cover, but that might be at the expense of the music, as seen with their 4th album. This is a criminally under looked classic, and it defines melodic death metal at it's very finest.

Highlights: Forever Blind, The Beautiful Wound, The Swarm.

At the Gates was not always the radio-friendly, melo-death riff machine of Slaughter of the Soul, but they weren’t beholden to the progressive, epic style of death metal they displayed on The Red in the Sky. Bridging the gap between these two monumental releases was With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness, an album that represented only a subtle shift away from the sound of their debut, and Terminal Spirit Disease, an often-overlooked checkpoint in the band’s marked ascension towards melodic superstardom.

“The Swarm” and the title track provide a brilliant introduction to the sound the band is going for here: stark and stripped-back vocals with almost a black metal flair to them, a kinetic circuit of guitar riffs that push the pace along at blinding speeds, and elements of both the evolving death metal landscape around them and the Swedish sound they would help pioneer. “The Swarm” has a main riff that is eerily reminiscent of something from Carcass’s Heartwork but the drum pattern feels a bit more complex. The production on this album inches closer to the crystal-clear layering the band went for on their next album, but there is still some holdover fuzz if you dig deep enough into the guitars.

After about 4 or 5 tracks, it feels like this record is about to rip through without so much as flinching- even with the folky interlude of “And the World Returned”. Across the album, the guitar work does admittedly begin to blend together, but because of how cutting-edge this more melodic style of death metal was, the diverse drum arrangements and the crucifying vocal performance is more than enough to supplant what may otherwise feel like a one-trick pony behind the axe. “The Fevered Circle” is a good example, with a theme strikingly emblematic of the material on Slaughter of the Soul but an array of guitar riffs that, even though they are slower, still resemble much of the work this album has already put in.

And then we get to the live tracks. This was a controversial inclusion that really doesn’t affect the album one way or the other. From a legacy standpoint, the band may have been better served releasing TSD as an EP and conjuring up the means to release a separate live album, but in the context of the band’s career arc, it does feel like one final tribute to the band’s roots before they would completely shed their skin and start anew. Together, the two sides of this album are a brilliant exercise in the scorching brand of melo-death that was quickly becoming canon for any band trying to survive while still holding onto the pieces of the band that gave them the credibility they had more than earned.

It's very difficult for me to clearly rate "Terminal Spirit Disease". On the one hand, there are only 6 tracks + 3 live recordings, which is definitely too short, on the other hand, material that paradoxically does not differ much from "With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness" (except for the cover). Unfortunately, "Terminal Spirit Disease" loses a lot of the fact that it is not an ep, one gets the impression that it was made in a hurry, calculated under a contract binding the band (which was true...) and based solely on known patents. Totally contradicting the syndrome of the third album.

But even despite the shit-formula invented by the media, a little over 20 minutes of premiere music is terribly small, especially for a band that previously had two solid "awesome" albums up its sleeve. At The Gates offered here a continuation of the patents known from the aforementioned "With Fear..." and basically not much else. Interestingly, occasionally the violin in the style of "The Red In The Sky Is Ours" appears here, although this is also nothing new, only a small reference to the debut.

Therefore, the album includes only standard songs for this style, including "Forever Blind", "The Fevered Circle", "The Swarm", "The Beautiful Wound" and the title track. Fortunately, these songs have nothing to do with the trashy In Flames or other equally cheerful musicians, they are made with power and without embarrassing ideas, where there must be some sweet melody all the time. In each of them we have a lot of delicious riffs, fast tempos, nice melodies and a lot of Lindberg's screams - that is generally At The Gates in a nutshell. Although the material is expanded with an acoustic instrumental ("And The World Returned"), it's a song to skip, not too thrilling and rather filling here.

Later on, the band included live tracks, "Kingdom Gone" from their debut, "All Life Ends" from the demo "Gardens Of Grief" and "The Burning Darkness" from "With Fear...". It may be a good choice, but in their place I would rather hear the premiere material than the already known one. As I mentioned in the introduction, the most difficult thing is to unequivocally assess the content of "Terminal Spirit Disease". The new songs are surprising on average, and the old ones served alive seem to be completely redundant here. I know that there will be some supporters of this album, but purely objectively (sic!), At The Gates both earlier and later managed to produce much better music. The discussed one can only be listened out of curiosity.

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2019/08/at-gates-terminal-spirit-disease-1994.html

At The Gates fans tend to fall into two categories: those who prefer their earlier, more progressive works exemplified by The Red In The Sky Is Ours, and those who prefer the simplistic, locked in groove of Slaughter of the Soul. Personally, I think both sides have their drawbacks although I generally prefer the earlier works. Although they are inconsistent and not well produced, it's better than the predictable verse-chorus stylings and teen angst lyrics on Slaughter of the Soul.

Terminal Spirit Disease exists in a twilight between two polarizing eras - lacking the adventurous song structures of the Alf era, or the overt mainstream style of SoTS. Instead, we get songs that are longer and more complex than SoTS, but still in the same basic verse/chorus format. Although this guarantees that purists in both camps will find something to dislike about Terminal Spirit Disease (hence the generally low score), this is actually a fucking killer little album that does not get due recognition.

The album opens up with "The Swarm", a classic track that is a staple of ATG's live set even today. It seamlessly transitions from a melancholic cello introduction into a fluid guitar melody, then into a choppy verse and swinging chorus section. The guitar solo is nothing special - it's easy to see why At The Gates never really did much in this realm - but it's mercifully brief and doesn't really hurt the song's momentum too much.

The highlight of the album is "Forever Blind", a compact mini-epic where beautifully somber three guitar harmonies build into a searing, apocalyptic chorus section - accompanied by one of Tomas' strongest vocal performances. Even though the song is fairly conventional in structure, it conveys a feeling of violent, epic majesty like the best works from the Alf era, only simpler in scope. This song showcases the album's best overall feature; guitar melodies that simultaneously convey a feeling of sorrow and tense, urgent aggression. It's like the best moments of the first side of "With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness" condensed into a more easily digestible format.

It's not a perfect album - "The Fevered Circle" is a bit lazy, and the interlude is pretty but not overly substantial. The album ends on a high note with "The Beautiful Wound" though, with more of those gloomy yet raging guitar melodies.
Tacked on to the end are some live tracks that should please fans of the earlier Alf era - they are basically unchanged except for beefier guitar sound and a slightly faster tempo. I actually prefer "The Burning Darkness" to the album version - it's good to hear such a classic track unmarred by the bad guitar tone of that album.

Like with most of the early At The Gates releases, the lyrics are among the best in metal; thoughtful and reflective, but with a healthy dose of pessimism. Besides, when was the last time you heard a death metal band reference Kahlil Gilbran ("What is evil, but good...")? It's nice to hear bands depart from the usual Nietszche, Lovecraft etc, even if the work cited is of a much more optimistic spirit than the bands' actual lyrics.

Overall, if you have a tolerance for somewhat accessible metal but stop short of fully mainstream crossover music, you'll find much to appreciate here. Even if you aren't really a fan of At The Gates, this album might provide the perfect fix that both their main eras lacked for you. Although I love The Red In The Sky and With Fear..., I actually find myself spinning this album more than either of them. Despite how overlooked it is, it's an underrated classic that at least deserves a listen from any discerning metal fan.

This was around the point At the Gates started to get a little less interesting, whilst some of the factors that made their debut such a cool affair were still used to good effect, the inclusion of a certain degree of the more pugilistic riffing style that dominates Slaughter of the Soul dilutes Terminal Spirit Disease

Also is the fact that while this album bridges the old and new, you may as well listen to The Red in the Sky is Ours for their creepy, sprawling style of true melodic death metal, and obviously Slaughter for the articulate Gothenburg riffing. Both of which do it better as opposed to ever so slightly unfocused blend of the two.

Still Terminal Spirit Disease isn't without its own merit, and at just over half an hour this is a fairly digestible slice of music, ideal for bus rides and shorter walks, or even something to spin while getting ready to go out. As I said earlier this is a little less interesting, but it is far from bad. The riffs are quite good, and are certainly well articulated, the acoustic guitars are handled nicely and its nice to see the violin still being used (sparingly though).

The production is, as with their debut a little rough around the edges, especially when compared with the follow up, but still it has its charm and I suppose it will ease the passing of the album for the more "true" fans. The melodic guitar parts are really nice, and are utilized in true Swedish fashion, maybe not as interesting as with the debut but still good.

The worst thing about this release is that it is passed of as a full-length, even though a third of the tracks are bloody live, so really this is just a fairly generous EP. Still hardly a massive niggle, but it does hurt the final scoring a little.

Tracks such as "Forever Blind" and the title track are amongst the best of the bunch, "The Beautiful Wound" is also pretty sweet, and has some cool melodic guitars around the start. Overall this isn't an album I'd pay premium for, but would serve as a small treasure from the bargain bin. A solid addition to a death metal collection, although purists should probably proceed with caution as I'm sure you will tell me this is when they started to get "gay"

At the Gates needs to appear in every book written about the history of metal. Not only are they influential in the development of the melodic death metal, but their music isn't overrated. Sadly, they even get a lot of undeserved bashing done by the narrow-minded death metal elitists who can't understand why they've progressed. I'm not a great fan of the genre either, but i don't have preconceptions: This is a great album! Your typical melo-death judging by song structure, but the quality is not quite average...

"Terminal Spirit Disease" is always aggressive, always melodic and always rough, but a lot of other records could be called the same. Some have harsh vocals as good as the ones of Tomas Lindberg that are expressing hate so well, some have drummers that do a decent forevermore blast-beating-job like Adrian Erlandsson, but almost none have solemn melodies so incredibly harmonious.

Basically this is music for people that want to "please" the ear and release the anger at the same time. The almost omnipresent demented death growls are emotionally bound to the music and sound the same all throughout the album (just like on "Slaughter of the Soul"). The lyrics are misanthropic and abstract, thus everyone can interpret them in many ways and relate to them. As you can deduct from what I've said, the down-tuned medium-distorted guitars are the main artisans of the album. The riffs are repetitive at times, but not in an exaggerated manner. The guitar solos are all very good and most of the tracks have them. You can hear the bass lines only by paying much attention.

Unconventional instruments (cello and viola) and the sounds of a storm can be heard at the beginning of the opener, "The Swarm", which also has the best guitar solo of the album. In addition, "Terminal Spirit Disease" has a nice "Malmsteen-ish" shred guitar solo. The only other song with atypical instruments is the melancholic song "And the World Returned" which only features the acoustic guitar+cello duo. Unique is also "The Fevered Circle". It has doom metal influenced riffs, though there is still a fast tempo like in all of the other songs except the instrumental. Now about the three live tracks... They are pointless: no crowd atmosphere, no new musical elements, but at least the quality of the recording is good. I really don't understand why At the Gates didn't compose something new, as they clearly have no problems in creating good music. Some of the similar albums are: Arch Enemy's "Black Earth", Sacramentum's "The Coming Of Chaos", Dawn's "Slaughtersun (Crown of the Triarchy)" and At the Gates' "Slaughter of the Soul" (of course).

"In a dreaming utopia - dead on dope"
"The sun shall never greet my eyes again"
"Your beauty rages through my veins"
"I've lost all sense of what is real"
"No goddamn sun, no goddamn pain"

If you are a fan of Gothenburg metal, this is a must! If not, sincerely, you should still try it!

Oh yeah cause I thought it kicked ass. Well, it’s certainly better than the previous album, but I think it’s a step down from Slaughter Of The Soul. For one, the drumming is incredibly weak, and I don’t really want to complain too much since it’s an Erlandsson sitting behind the battery. The double bass sounds like they have pillows in the way, the toms cymbal crashing sounds too far away, and the hat shouldn’t have been touched since it’s a clattering twitch of a noise that you can barely hear anyway. His style is blast beats solely, but he does like to mix it up a bit with the riffs – still solidifies the fact that a great drummer can’t fix a shitty drum sound.

Lindberg sounds like a maniac on the mic - pure growling with a cut-up throat. He doesn’t really scream as much as he growls in an incredibly throaty way – raspy at its very core. Call it screaming, whatever, but his voice is dicey either way. At the time of this recording, he sounded more psychotic than Anders Fridén and more controlled than Mikael Stanne.

Overall, the riffs are melodic in a very classical way, whereas In Flames’ The Jester Race was very power / heavy metal oriented. Therefore, the riffs can be seen as more intricate and deep, but if you wanted to hear even more elaborate and meaningful then I’d recommend you Desultory, Immortalis, or Morpheus. Hell, even their peers Without Grief and Arch Enemy played Gothenburg pretty damn well (on their first couple of albums in the Arch Enemy’s case), so go check them out instead – much more engaging riffs and a darker tone. The ones here range from murky, to sinister, to drawn-out, but at least listening to this isn’t as trivial as At The Gates Spin-offs like Mors Principium Est or Naildown.

If you want to pay attention even more, then try to find out if the bass is useful at all. A lot of times it can stick to just following the simple rhythm, but here it’s hard to make it and even so doesn’t do any justice. Riffs I can compliment on something, but bass is just there for kicks. Oh yeah, and the live tracks are terrible – I admit that they’re live tracks so a grainy sound will exist, but did you really have to add these to the album? They don’t really add anything special to help the cause and the songs themselves are boring. If you wanted to hear those songs, you’d go to their respective albums to hear them, not stick around to hear the ones with poor quality.

So, I’m not a huge fan of At The Gates, but I’ll take the more focused Slaughter Of The Soul over this one – even though that album isn’t exactly the “be all / end all” of Gothenburg either. Oh yeah, and the instrumental didn’t really do anything for me – sounds like something that you’d hear in a Persian rug market.

At The Gates was a band I always thought were just okay, only having heard "Slaughter of the Soul" before this. While the album was a decent attempt at melo-death, it lacked substance and was far too repetitious for its own good. My curiosity of the band's earlier work was growing, and namely for this release having read other reviews on it being a more focused SotS. It was a relatively good decision.

The album has been one of the only things to rotate this often in my CD player for a long time. All six studio tracks are extremely well executed. They do stick to the same formula as "Slaughter of the Soul", however they don't begin thrashing for no reason or being brutal just for the sake of creating fast riffs and earning more brainless fans. While the guitar riffs are a bit upbeat, there is a lot of melody mixed in to tracks like "The Swarm", "Forever Blind" and "The Beautiful Wound". There is more melody to be found here than on SotS for sure. My one complaint is that some of the riffs are repetitious at times, and lose focus for where the song direction is headed. Naming off a good example is "Forever Blind". The introduction of the song starts with melodies and later breaks into a shred fest for a few seconds.

As for the other instruments: they're alright as well. The drum work is your average melo-death drumming, without the annoying "TIC TIC TIC BLASTBEAT" aspect. For this At The Gates get my complete respect because I don't get a headache listening to this as opposed to some new acts (that would be you in particular Mors Principium Est). There are the occasional tribal beats, namely on "The Fevered Circle" which suit is perfectly. Never is there a moment where the drums have filler moments on the album. As for the bass, well, the fact that it can be heard alone is a good thing. Bass lines can be heard by paying attention to the album closely. As for vocals… if you've "Slaughter of the Soul", they're nothing new. Screams and that's pretty much it. Perfectly suits the music here, and I couldn't imagine deep growls fitting this.

The release also has three live tracks: "All Life Ends", "The Burning Darkness" and "Kingdom Gone". These tracks alone made me want to see At The Gates this year at Wacken despite the distance. All three tracks sound like studio tracks since the production is really well done, and pack a large amount of energy. These same three tracks also made my curiosity rise in their death metal period. These three tracks are among my favorite songs I've heard from a live set in a long time.

Highly recommended for anyone who likes good melo-death.

Highlights: "The Swarm", "Forever Blind", "The Beautiful Wound", "All Life Ends (Live)" & "Kingdom Gone (Live)".

Maybe not, but without Alf, ATG really starts becoming what they are most known for. This is the sound that they would perfect on Slaughter of the Soul, and eventually influence a hell of a lot of bands, including the shitty mallcore scene.

When the first riff from "The Swarm" shows up, you can immidiately tell that this is the At the Gates that most people know and love. Even the production resembles Slaughter of the Soul. I personally enjoy that album quite a bit, but it's far from their best work for me.

The structures are very linear on here. It's not like the previous two releases, where you have no idea where you are going. Riffs are catchier, and Tomas seems a bit more sane. You've got the obligatory acoustic diddy, "And the World Returned," which doesn't really add much and seems kind of out of place and happy. Sorry, I'll take "The Scar" to that any day, as that piece really matched its context.

It almost makes me miss With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness, even though that's my least favourite ATG album. I felt that album had some strong elements, but tried WAAAAY to hard to be overly technical. On here, I feel as though they oversimplified everything. While this is what ATG are known for, it just doesn't match the sickness of the first two albums. It makes me wish there could have been a little more compromise between the two styles.

Alf Svensson was a true madman of sick, disturbing riffing, and without him, ATG becomes something very palatable. Whether this is good or bad, it's ultimately up to the listener to decide, but I know where I stand.

In 1996, one of the worst moments in Metal history occurred: the juggernaut Melodic Death Metal band At the Gates disbanded. After 5 tours in one year, irreconcilable differences caused the members to pick up their instruments and go their own way. If I knew who they were then (I was only 8 at the time), I would’ve cried.

Known for creating the “New Wave of Swedish Death Metal” scene (or typically known as “Gothenburg Death Metal”), At the Gates pioneered the sound by mixing the brutal tones of thrash with the melody that was found in the death metal scene of Gothenburg, Sweden. Hence, they created “Gothenburg Death Metal”: A heavy blend of ferocious riffs that had the calming of melody intertwined within them.

After an EP and two albums which gained them little attention (they were still homing in on their trademark sound), they sent shockwaves throughout the Metal scene with “Terminal Spirit Disease”, which showed the band on the brink of something truly astounding, revolutionary, and inspiring. And while they certainly achieved that on their follow-up “Slaughter of the Soul”, that doesn’t mean that “Terminal Spirit Disease” should just be considered a warm-up. It’s a bit more technical, and just as brutal and melodic as its successor.

Haunting, bone-chilling, and irresistibly beautiful - those are the words that come to mind from opening notes of “The Swarm”. A cello/violin duo creates a sea of melancholy, in which the listener is forced to dive into. It’s only a matter of seconds before the first riff lands a solid right into your jaw, and slams you into the ground. Here you get the first taste of the rabid vocalist Tomas Lindberg, whose frothing voice is a legend among the Metal community. He puts so much emotion into his work that it sounds as if every vein in his depraved body is about to erupt. And combine that with the infatuating duel between serenity and discord that the guitarists Björler and Larsson create, and your mind will be overdriven with emotion. This whole act is carried on throughout the rest of the album. The deranged title track is throttled forward by Lindberg’s malicious voice and death-embracing riffs, while others like “Forever Blind” and “The Beautiful Wound” will leave you shaking from the coexistence of aggression and equanimity. And passing up on the gorgeous and unexpected acoustic/cello themed “And the World Returned” should be punishable by death.

“A dead nation under one dead god…”

It’s not so much that you’ll be immersed into a new world of Gothenburg, but it’s the fact that these artists are nearly flawless in everything that they do. Lindberg is one of the most mesmerizing vocalists one will ever come across. While he doesn’t have much variation in his vocal works, he doesn’t need to. He perfectly suits the guitars throughout the whole album, and by the time a song is finished, you’d believe he literally has nothing else to give. His vocal efforts on “Forever Blind” are like watching a man fight for his very own existence, knowing that if he doesn’t put it all out now, he never will. Listening to him snarl “We have lost our faith in our own creativity. What is evil, but good, Tortured by its own hunger and thirst?” will provoke your mind. He seems to have the attitude that every song he does is his last performance ever, and he strains his body to unmatchable limits. Such passion is rare, but it’s even mirrored by Björler and Larsson. This classic duo flicks out some of the most creative riffs the Metal community has ever, and will ever see. “The Beautiful Wound” and “The Swarm” are stunning achievements no matter how you look at them. And not only can they write riffs, but they can solo as if their life depended on it. “Terminal Spirit Disease” easily walks away with the most impressive solo on the album, as Björler rips through melodic note after note.

If anything were to hamper the dark experience presented by this album, it would be the actual amount of songs. You’re given a meager 6 tracks, and then 3 live tracks. While all three lives tracks are astonishing (“All Life Ends”, “The Burning Darkness”, and “Kingdom Gone”), you’ll be so busy devouring the actual tracks that you’ll never pay attention to them. I'll stand firm with my belief that if this just had 4 more tracks, it would stand equal to "Slaughter of the Soul". But also, out of the 6 real tracks you are given, “The Fevered Circle” lacks any replay value. While it’s certainly not a horrible track, the other 5 are so sensational that it will just leave you disappointed.

If ever there was a band that I wished would come back, it would be At the Gates. And while “Terminal Spirit Disease” might not be as ground breaking as “Slaughter of the Soul”, it still deserves more than your respect. With 5 songs of pure bliss, and one mediocre one, this demands to be in every Metal fans album collection. For these musicians are true masters of their craft, and “Terminal Spirit Disease” stands as monument to them.

Overall – 4/5 (80)

Recommended Tracks
The Swarm
Terminal Spirit Disease
Forever Blind

At the Gates is a band that started with a typical death metal sound but then they moved forward to a new kind of death metal that sounded more melodic, therefore plenty of people hated them and many others loved them. Most of the people who enjoyed this new version of death metal were actually melodic metal fans, in contrast to the extreme old school death metal audience that disliked this new style.

With this said I will just have to mention that “Terminal Spirit Disease” is in the middle of both styles, showing songs of the new era of the band but also showing live songs of their old sound. People who enjoyed both, old and new era of At the Gates, are usually satisfied about this album, and it actually sounds like a prelude of their later album “Slaughter of the Soul”.

One of the main characteristics of the album are the vocals… nothing more than high toned grunts and screams of pain and desperation, they are kinda in the way of Children of Bodom’s vocals. The guitar riffs are actually interesting, they seem to switch between death metal figures to harmonized riffs and melodic chords. The drumming also has this switching, they use blast beat but suddenly the drums use a standard double bass riff that doesn’t sound tough or aggressive.

The first song “The Swarm” has quite an atmospheric intro that includes string classical instruments, after a few seconds you realize that is only an intro and that the band is a blast. The first guitar riff is quite harmonized but for the verse changes to a deathish figure and the chorus has catchy music, except for the voice. As a melodic death metal fan I recommend this song and also “Forever Blind” and “The Beautiful Wound”. There´s also an instrumental acoustic intermission “And the World Returned”, this kind of instrumentals are typical in melodic death metal albums, bands like In Flames and Dark Tranquillity included this kind of instrumentals in their own albums as a direct influence of At the Gates.

As for the three live songs included in the album, they don’t sound melodic, as I mentioned before but the quality of the recording is quite good and it gives you the opportunity to realize how At the Gates sounded before evolving to the melodic sound. I recommend this album mainly to the people who enjoyed “Slaughter of the Soul”.

This was the first At The Gates album I bought. When I first bought this album, I almost listened to the entire CD the first day. This album features some melodic guitar work, which I think is really good. I also like the straight forward riffs as well. The intro of The Swarm is pretty cool. Not every death metal uses a violin in their songs. I think what At The Gates did was original. If you make someone listen to this song without knowing who the band is, they make think it's just some violin piece or whatever. They will be really surprised to listen what comes after that.

The title track is the best one in my opinion. Tomas Lindberg is a really powerful vocalist. He uses his vocals really well on this song. I like that scream he does around the 1:40 mark of the song. The drumming from Adrian Erlandsson is excellent on that song as well.

And The World Returned is a pretty interesting instrumental track. It sounds a little eerie, but that's what makes it good.

As for the rest of the songs, they got their good points. I really like the fact that they put live tracks on this album. The quality of these live tracks are really excellent, in my opinion. Kingdom Gone sounds extremely good live. It is the longest track on the whole album. All of the live songs are classic At The Gate songs, especially All Life Ends and The Burning Darkness. They sound better live than in the studio.