http://www.metalinjection.net/latest-ne ... ng-in-2018

From the band:



From Björler:

The follow-up was lame as hell and Anders even admitted in an interview he was doesn't separate ATG riffs from The Haunted riffs, so this isn't a surprise at all since the passion wasn't there. I would imagine Jonas's writing style is exactly the same so I can't really see this making much of a difference. Unless they recruit like, Dan Swano or Anders Nystrom, I have no interest in new At The Gates music

Agreed. That comeback album was dull as hell. Nothing really interesting from it at all. I've got no real hopes that the new album will be much better.

If they have the burning urge to create death metal together maybe that's what they should do.

call me when Alf makes another Oxiplegatz album.

I thought At War with Reality was good, I was expecting a rehash of SotS and was surprised they tried something a little different with some Alf the Gates elements and more old school death metal stuff. That said, it wasn't anywhere near as good as Surgical Steel...as for Anders, he was always the guy who said they would never make a new album so I find this all very interesting.

Will the time ever come when people don't give a shit about once-great bands reforming after a 10 or 20 year hiatus?

The overwhelming majority of the time it is a shameless cash-in and/or the result is a flaccid entry in said band's oeuvre.

Comeback album was so fucking phoned in, and to be honest the band never did much for me. Slaughter has to be one of the most boring "genre defining" records I've ever heard. I was so disappointed when I first heard it.

Terminal Spirit Disease probably has more staying power, TBH.

Man, there's not much love for Anders/At the Gates here... Anders' departure deeply saddens me. I consider At the Gates to be one of the best and most influential death metal bands of all time. I love both "Alf" the Gates as well as "Anders" the Gates. Considering Anders wrote most of their last three albums, I don't think they'll be able to go on. At least I had the opportunity to see them at Maryland Deathfest back in 2014 (they didn't play anything off of At War With Reality).

The first 4 or 5 songs on Slaughter of the Soul are absolutely mindblowing and some of the greatest melodic death metal songs ever recorded (I would say that "Blinded by Fear" is one of the best album openers ever). However, starting with "Suicide Nation" and onwards I think it starts to lose steam, or at least memorability. I wouldn't call any of the songs bad, but I've always felt like the latter half lacked identity compared to the much superior first half. Granted, it's been nearly 10 years since I last heard the album so maybe I would think something totally different if I put it on again...

I actually had no idea At The Gates were still even around anymore, haha! I'm also pretty sure that I'm not the only one in this situation. They basically splitted up in 96, came back together in 2007 only to split up again in 2008, to finally reform in 2010, and managed to release only one album in a seven years span. And now their guitarist said he's quitting cause he lost interest? I'm pretty sure we've all lost interest...

it's all downhill after The Red In the Sky is Ours, tbh. all anyone really needs is that album and the Gardens of Grief ep. the rest is mediocre Swedish mallcore for the most part. contrary to popular belief, all innovation this band created left after Alf departed.

I don´t know if he was really responsible of the superior quality of the first records but its true that the band had something special when he was involved.

Back in time I was a fan of the "Slaugther of the Soul" but It´s true that its all the time the same so the album itself is boring, though it has 3-4 great songs(THAT opener!).

I enjoyed "At War with Reality" but I must admit that my interest in melodic death metal is nowadays quite small.

I agree. Except perhaps the mallcore part...to me it felt more like castrated death/thrash. Sounds to me as if they took out the "testies" and replaced them with some lame groove riffs. "The Red..." was charming in its amateurishness and scope. Undoubtedly goofy...but presented some interesting ideas and songwriting. SotS and TSD didn't have the charm, the scope, songwriting, etc. At best I could say each had a couple of songs that has a couple good riffs. They certainly accomplished changing their style which attracted quite the following...just never quite figured it out why.

Alf didn't depart after the debut, and how is their sophomore Swedish mallcore? It's stylistically very close to the debut and a far cry from what came after.

Yeah I was about to chime in but droneriot beat me to it, thats one of the most ridiculous things i've read on here in awhile. I'm guessing he's probably never even heard their sophomore album with that statement.

Nothing more to say. "The Red In The Sky Is Ours" was great, everything afterwards a huge disappointment. SOTS is indeed one of the most overrated metal albums of all time (together with Slayer's "Reign In Blood" perhaps), totally lame and soulless. Same goes for their comeback album.

IMHO the studio tracks on Terminal Spirit Disease are where the band hit the perfect balance between interesting songwriting and more streamlined song structures. Slaughter of the Soul is fun but way too formulaic; as others have not it seems to lose steam the longer it plays, and to me a big part of this is that pretty much all the songs, instrumentals aside, follow the same pattern. It gets old after a while.



Lost all hope for that long ago, but just in case, please notify me as well!

you had me until you threw reign in blood in there

Dunno if Slaughter overrated, I don't hear it praised a lot, but maybe because there's no Hot Topics to hang out at in Germany. Talking to people about metal here it's usually about Sodom (stereotype but true) or Motörhead or somesuch, at least the few people I meet who are openly into metal are into 80s stuff the most. And online the only place I talk about metal is this forum, and the only people praising the album are those who also love Carcass' thinly disguised Backstreet Boys cover albums and whose posts I therefore blend out.

from what i understand, slaughter of the soul is some kind of benchmark for its type in the genre. not that i'd disagree with that, i just don't like melo-death all that much.

It's the benchmark for removing all the death metal from melodeath, and I'm sure a lot of people are into that, I just don't see that many actual metalheads praising that development. I see a lot more praise for bands like Deceased and The Chasm who use the same level of melody but with the death (or death/thrash) metal still intact.

yeah, i suppose you're right. it's a bit of a surface level album.

i saw at the gates in 2008 with toxic holocaust and municipal waste. they were good.

As someone who likes real death metal and melodic death metal, I think it's a pretty good album. I wouldn't judge it based on the fact that it doesn't sound like what people come to recognize DM to be, but on its own merits I do enjoy what At the Gates did on that record. Some of my favorite albums ever are in that kind of melodeath genre. But then you have bands like Luciferion on The Apostate or early Darkane that do it the other way too, which are also awesome.

As someone who likes everything and everything, you think everything's a pretty good album.

Yeah I'm a death metal fan but I enjoy Slaughter. I dislike the debut and TSD. TSD stinks if you ask me.

Nah, that's a myth that has no bearing in reality. I like a lot of stuff because there's lots to like.

You're really just trying to piss off as many people as possible, aren't you? Usually I do my best to try and ignore your asinine statements while perusing this forum, but I'm in irritable mood today, so I'm going to call them out for what they are: asinine. How/since when is post-Alf At the Gates devoid of any/all death metal? I really don't care about genre wars, I'm more so bothered by the implications that you're making that no one is challenging you on, e.g., that SOTS is mallcore, and that actual metalheads would pass them over for what you most likely deem as more respectable bands. Your dismissive and elitist tone is certainly not going to win you any allies.

Back on topic: I'm liking the love I see for TSD on here. I think I would consider it their best if it wasn't for The Fevered Circle, which is by far the worst song on the album.

You wouldn't catch me dead using the term "mallcore" and I am bothered by the implication that I would. On top of that, using a (moronic) slur for nu-metal for later At the Gates doesn't even make any sense, it's melodeath - which is the term I did use. Nitpicking aside, it's a genre that's extreme fluff, or fluffy extreme, fighting without violence like pro-wrestling, and like pro-wrestling good for mindless entertainment but without any sincerity to it. It's just how it is, and there's nothing dismissive and elitist about saying so.

as someone whose fav style of music is probably osdm, i think slaughter... is a decent, tho' a bit boring album, save for the fantastic opener - it's an easy-listening, well made extreme fluff album, and i can see why it's so praised, but i much prefer the first two
it may be that it's just lack of listening, but terminal... is imo even less interesting than slaughter, but nothing compared to the snoozefest that was the comeback album (i don't even remember the name of that garbage)

in short, call me when alf joins back

Pretty much only listen to The Red in the Sky Is Ours and With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness. And I'm not really a huge fan of With Fear. It's not as good as Red in the Sky. I have Terminal and Slaughter and I see why other people enjoy them. But they are def not anything of any merit to me. But I don't care if other people like and praise them.

Why does every single ATG thread here derail into a flame war between Red and Slaughter fanboys? That's not the topic at hand, you guys are never going to agree, and you've already descended to name-calling on the first page so you're obviously not capable of a civil discussion in that area. The actual topic is infinitely more interesting than your whining.

I'm hoping they announce a new lead guitarist instead of trying to power through with a short lineup and add a live guitarist. They could really, really use some fresh ideas that a new member would most certainly bring.

.

I actually really like SotS. Sure it's formulaic, but something about that album makes it retain this weird apocalyptic mystique even after listening to it dozens of times. That guitar tone is terrific too.

And as for people saying the only good songs are in the first half? Two of my favorite songs are "Suicide Nation" and "World of Lies," which both occur after the mid-album instrumental. "Need" is another great one, and that's the final song before the closing instrumental. I love that chorus riff.

Is it a simple, surface-level album? Absolutely, but to me it succeeds because it never gets old, the length (34 minutes) doesn't leave a lot of room for bullshit, and there's plenty of great ideas and songs. I can see why people hate on it, but to me it succeeds regardless and over time it's probably become the At the Gates album I listen to the most.

At War With Reality, though? Yeah, very mediocre other than a few moments. Not bad, just so frustratingly middle of the road. With this departure I kind of hope they re-invigorate themselves with fresh blood and produce something that's at least better than Reality.

lol at all the edgy posturing in here.... saying that Slaughter of the Soul isn't special. Granted, I agree with those who have said that the first half is better than the 2nd half, but if you can't get into the first 5 songs then to me it feels like you are deliberately being a hater, for lack of a better phrase. Those songs are fantastic amalgamations of accessible, effective song structure (one could say "pop" structure but i know many would throw a fit) fused with the Swedish melodeath content.

I feel like people hate on this stuff because it's not over-wrought and deliberately complex and technical. Those songs are about as anthemic as you can get with this style of music, with Cold and Under A Serpent Sun being the pinnacle for me.

To me, this material goes beyond being death metal, swedish death metal or whatever you want to call. It is simply brilliantly-written extreme music. These songs are MUSICAL. An awful lot of extreme metal isn't musical to me, and i feel like some bands/people go after brutality/extremity/complexity simply for it's own sake and have no thoughts for any FEELING in their music, or catchy memorable musical moments.

There's a reason this material got so popular, and that's because it's fucking incredibly-written brilliant. They are hits. And it's PERFECTLY okay for there to be hits in the death metal world. I know a lot of you are so contrarian that the concept of having a "hit" in the pop music sensibility is totally off-putting, but lets be honest here... we're all still human, and there's a reason some songs rise to the top and are catchy and memorable to a wide audience. There's nothing wrong with that. I feel like so many metalheads are only into stuff simply because it's super obscure, inaccessible and extreme with no regards for sonorous musicality.


But lets be honest.... Slaughter of the Soul is classic, and there's a reason it spawned so many imitators. It's the same reason Reign In Blood got so popular... the music is just fucking awesome. You see it as bland and generic now, because you're comparing it to all of the people who copied it.


If you can't get into "Cold" or "Under A Serpent Sun" I feel like you're simply trying to put on an image of extreme anti-mainstream sensibilities. Which is a lame thing to do, but so many metal heads (at least where I come from) would do exactly such a thing. OH, THIS HAS MELODY AND IS CATCHY? ITS TEH SUX0R5!!!! ONLY UNREADABLE BLACK METAL L()G()S ARE TRV3 AND UNIQUE LEADER BANDS.


/rant. Listening to Slaughter of the Soul now. Enjoying the fuck out of it. Relax guys, it's okay for you to think this stuff is great. You're not going to lose scene cred, I promise.


EDIT: going back and listening to the old ATG stuff now.... and "Red In The Sky" is pretty damn good... I forgot about this material haha. I do wish the recording was better because there is no low end in this thing haha. It's got a lot of the same harmony characteristics that SOTS features as well, this is just more manic and convoluted, structurally. "With Fear..." isn't quite as good. You can really hear the youthfulness in the playing on these early albums though, which is kind of cool to be able to perceive.

I mean, everything they've done is great, but Slaughter of the Soul is next-level special. Some may see it as them selling out because the music matured and became simplified, but holy hell is it more effective.

Your desperation at going out of your way to defend it is even worse. What's all of this about scene cred? Slaughter stands out as an especially muted first impression to my ears, and I did approach it early on in my listening.

Slaughter is the gateway album. I remember first listening to it and being completely enamoured by it. The speed, the ferocity, the disregard for mainstream music trends etc. It was all very overwhelming for my adolescent mind and it definitely had a hand in me exploring metal further. I revisited Slaughter recently and it was a lukewarm experience. It's moderately catchy and energetic. But after all these years that's really all it is without my own wonder that came with discovering the most basic metal music at a younger age.

Might as well pitch my two cents in to this pile.


-Slaughter of the Soul as a listening experience totally rules, but as a death metal album it's a bit of a failure. The lyrical themes have nothing to do with morbidity or death. It feels more like a thrash/hardcore album than anything else, which is probably why it has such a wide appeal. That said its a bit of a Master of Puppets/Vulgar Display problem where its influence did more harm than good. Melodic death metal generally sucks.

-They should have stayed retired after the 2008 tour. Whatever magic of the myth they had recaptured is long gone and now they're just another band.

-Anyone that hasn't heard Grotesque needs to rectify that post haste. The "In the Embrace of Evil" comp is the second best thing Tomas has ever done.

-The old albums are fun but GOD the production is shit.