Review by Rexorcist for At the Gates - The Red in the Sky Is Ours (1992)

To end my melo-death exploration for the time being, I'm going to tackle At the Gates.  I'm aware that they're a death metal staple that's known for the legendary Slaughter of the Soul, which has largely been revered as a polished piece of pure putrid power.  I also know that their debut has some die-hard defenders, claiming that the writing alone makes this a better album than overly polished works.  Believe it or not, while many online metal communities consider Slaughter of the Soul the band's defining album, some places like Metal Archives and Metal Academy consider this album the better.

The first thing I'm gathering here is SCOPE.  This album shoves a large number of riffs in your face, which largely maintain a high level of accessibility.  Through the Gardens of Grief is just everywhere their debut's style will allow.  I was worried at first that the album would largely sound like that throughout, and that it would be an exercise in style over substance, but Within made a point of bragging about sluggish doom and extreme speeds rather than solos, thankfully.  It changes emotional direction into something quite somber.  The album has very little to say in terms of genre-exploration, but justifies their level of creativity with these numerous skillful riffs and rhythms.

The production here is actually known for being less polished than many albums before, but that doesn't completely bother me as this is a more traditional and early brand of melo-death.  Not exactly fair to expect diamond production on a debut, right?  This production style has a very authentic feel to it.  But this doesn't mean it's perfect.  The album is in serious need of heavier drumming.  It's certainly not bad by any means; in fact, it can be quite impressive.  Claws of Laughter Dead (maybe I'm wrong, but that's kind of a shitty name) will prove this effortlessly.  I'd rather drum like this guy does than Neil Peart.

Overall, this debut was a display of the band's extraordinary powers of riffage, being a single-genre marathon of how to keep an album going on that concept and actually remain consistently intriguing and accessible despite the lack of necessity for consistent layout and proper variety.  It's extra rare to find albums like this that can do such a thing.

95