At the Gates - Terminal Spirit Disease (1994)^{Release ID: 1286}

Great new direction let down by trying to make an album out of what is really an EP.

Finally At the Gates got their structure right with Terminal Spirit Disease. Their first two albums The Red in the Sky is Ours and With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness, while seemingly both having numerous fans, lacked any sort of cohesive song writing. I find both to be quite frustrating to endure due to good riffs appearing and disappearing before you've had any chance to enjoy them. It's difficult to find anything truly memorable on them as there's a million ideas combined in one chaotic tapestry. On this album (if you can call it that), they streamlined things and created real "songs" for the first time in their existence, and for the first time I find myself enjoying their work immensely.

The first two tracks, The Swarm and Terminal Spirit Disease are awesome. Both contain truly great riffs that display the sort of quality that these Swedish legends would produce in force on their future classic Slaughter of the Soul. And the World Returned is a nice acoustic instrumental to break things up and the remaining three studio tracks are all great if not quite up to the standard that of the earlier part of the album set. Unfortunately, that's all we really get as the last three tracks are live versions of older material that for the most part, I didn't really get into the first time around. The production is decent enough for these live recordings with all instruments easily heard and the band putting in a powerful performance.

All Life Ends is easily the best of these tracks which was first released on their rather less melodic 1991 EP Gardens of Grief. But The Burning Darkness and Kingdom Gone do no more for me here than they did on the studio albums, making Terminal Spirit Disease fade away disappointingly after a promising start. The new material would probably be worth around 4.5 stars, but I must shed half a star for not completing what they started. Still, if you enjoy Slaughter of the Soul, then there's a lot to like about this release. But it's a long distant second to that classic, that's for sure.

DEAD ON DOPE!

I really want to give this a higher rating, but I just can't bring myself to do it. Don't get me wrong, the first two songs are extraordinary. Like, among the very best this genre has ever produced. The presence of "The Swarm" alone makes me want to 4.5-star this. "What is evil but good, twisted by its own hunger and thirst?" But alas, it just wouldn't be right.

The Red in the Sky Is Ours, With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness, Slaughter of the Soul...these are albums worthy of my vaunted 4-star threshold. They are true albums. They each have their own subtle but unique defining feel to them. Their songs flow, like they were meant to be played together. They are not flawless, but they are filled with standout moments from front to back. That primal & passionate At The Gates essence flows throughout, naturally.

Terminal Spirit Disease does not feel like an album. It feels like At the Gates were being rushed by their record label. It feels like they had 2-3 great songs worth of material they were thrilled with, but then had to quickly come up with more to fill a full album. Hence the distinct drop in memorability after the second track. Also hence the pointless live recording tacked onto the end to meet minimum runtime. "And the World Returned" is an evocative acoustic intermission, but you get the feeling that it too was thrown in to fill space. Of the back three tracks, "Forever Blind" is the one most worth coming back to - but it doesn't hold a candle to "The Swarm" or the title track. There's a skeleton of an amazing song there, but it feels half-baked. Which summarizes my overall stance on the album. This could've been a stunning all-time classic if At the Gates had taken the time to really hone those songs more - and develop a few more actual new songs.

It's disappointing because the sound they play here sits so perfectly between that of the early albums and Slaughter of the Soul. I love both styles, but they are pretty different. Terminal Spirit Disease is a delightful blend of the two...if only there was more fully-baked material here for me to really sink my teeth into. Oh well, at least Terminal Spirit Disease gave us two immaculate compositions, which is more than most albums can claim.