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

Ignore the naysayers, Slaughter of the Soul is an aggressive and well-crafted masterpiece.

At the Gates' first releases didn't impress me much. Here was a band that could certainly write some decent riffs, had some excellent drumming and a vocalist that could tear your skin off from 100 metres away. But while they showed good enthusiasm and talent, they lacked focus to pull it off. Both The Red in the Sky is Ours and With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness contained more riffs than you could poke a stick at, but the end result were incohesive and fairly forgettable albums. 1994's Terminal Spirit Disease displayed a new At the Gates and the first sign that they were about to do something big. While the album was a bit disappointing due to its length (only 6 new tracks), what it did present was powerful, melodic and tight death metal. The band appeared to be readying themselves to hit the big time, but nothing prepared me for just how massive they would become!

Let's get something straight about Slaughter of the Soul. It may be considered melodic death metal with all the negative connotations that can go with that subgenre, but it packs a serious punch. It grabs you by the throat immediately and doesn't let go until its 35 minutes are up. It may not contain an awful lot of variety during that short running time, but it breaks things up with some excellent atmospheric instrumentals and most tracks are extremely memorable. No track goes over 4 minutes, so there's absolutely no messing around. Anders and Martin pull out a seemingly endless supply of cool, shredding riffs while Tomas screams his guts out with a venom most vocalists can only dream of. But you hardly have time to focus on all the little details while experiencing this album. You're just swept along by the aggression and catchiness of it all.

Slaughter of the Soul is one of those albums that receives unfair criticism from both those who blame it for the onslaught of clones (and the dreaded metalcore genre) that would populate the metal community after its release and those that don't appreciate that melody has a place within the confines of death metal. I don't fit into either of these crowds and proudly state that this is one of the defining and best albums released in extreme metal. It's immensely entertaining stuff, with cracking riffs, truly vicious vocals and a production to die for. Along with Dark Tranquillity and In Flames, At the Gates were brave enough to take death metal into uncharted territories and good enough to take it close to the mainstream. But it's clear the band weren't just in it for the popularity or the money as they pulled the plug immediately after its release, going out at the highest point imaginable. Ignore the party poopers, Slaughter of the Soul is a great album that you'll go back to time and time again.