Review by Rexorcist for At the Gates - Slaughter of the Soul (1995)

The death metal world practically worships this album, and it's so easy to see why that a child could do it.  In stark contrast to the wild and wacky nature of their debut, Slaughter of the Soul is much more simplistic.  This is not to say, however, that the album isn't good.  The reliance on layout and melody is the tradeoff from the unpredictable riffage from the debut, as well as an acidic and pyrrhic production style.  With extra accessibility, their songs are easier to get behind, but there is almost none of the poppiness you'd expect from your average Dark Tranquillity album.  Everything here is brutal in its own way, slamming like hammers on drums, and the band made sure every song was a total jam.  There's nothing too long or too short here, even when the songs are only two minutes.  Everything is packed to the atomic level with death metal extremity untamable anger and an extraordinary sense of melody.  Although the band once again writes an album with very little variation between the songs, they perfected the majority of everything else than a great album needs.  In fact, this is one of the most well-produced albums of any genre than I've ever heard.  It's a little difficult to believe that this was their swansong, considering they've grown in so many more ways than they've digressed.

93