Release Date: 18th May
Label: Century Media
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
At The Gates…what more can I say really. The legends, the Kings of the Gothenburg sound; The fore fathers of Melodic Death Metal as we know it. It’s safe to say that I got very, very excited when their latest wound up on the MNN desk. That all being said, how does a band spanning the best part of 30 years stay relevant with all these new bands cropping up with their new-fangled ways…This is a question I’m sure they’ve asked themselves, and going by this release, they couldn’t give two shits what everyone else is doing! They’ve looked at their back catalogue and really added that to the chalkboard when writing this full length.
For me, this album is a giant mixture between the ‘Slaughter of the Soul’ and ‘Terminal Spirit Disease’ albums (personally, my favourite two to date). The darkness and aggression from ‘TSD’ and the melody of ‘SOTS’ all mixed and cooked together to make one giant ass melodic death metal cake! And my god does it taste sweet! Delectable. Desirable. Destructive and downright fucking dirty!
The sound on this record, isn’t overproduced, polished to fuck with sparkling clarity, no! Russ Russell (Parlour Records) has done an insane job of making this record have a warm, authentic and atmospheric feel, that is clearly there by design. It’s an ambitious creation, one which has been pulled off in magnificent fashion. This sound has, and always will suit the way At The Gates write. The vinyl (I’m assuming this will be out on vinyl) will sound stunning, for that I am certain of!
I believe this is a better run out to their previous release of ‘At War With Reality’. This album, will have the long serving fans of ATG grinning from ear to ear. It’s just pure excellence. There isn’t a song where I thought, okay time to put this down…it just doesn’t have that. Every song is an absolute banger, every riff is stand out, every drum fill, every scream, growl and vocal pattern decisive in creating, in my eyes, their best album, alongside Slaughter of the Soul. It’s not better than Slaughter of the Soul, but it’s not worse, that’s for damn sure!
It’s needless to say but I am most definitely buying this album!
Rating: 10/10
Recommended Track: To Drink From The Night Itself
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