At The Gates "Slaughter Of The Soul"

Slaughter of the Soul is the fourth studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band At the Gates, released on October 3, 1995. It was their last album before their eleven-year breakup from 1996 to 2007. Slaughter of the Soul is considered a landmark in melodic death metal and played a major role in popularizing the Gothenburg scene, alongside The Jester Race by In Flames and The Gallery by Dark Tranquillity.[1] The album was recorded and mixed in Studio Fredman, early 1995.

All lyrics written by Lindberg; all music composed by Björler, Björler, except where noted.

Slaughter of the Soul is masterfully crafted in design, both technically and lyrically, And through sheer talent At The Gates managed to create, or at least contribute to a new genre of music, melodic metal core. A hybrid of melodic death metal fused with elements of metal core, Without this album, bands such as Avenged Sevenfold, Killswitch Engage as well as Unearth and many more simply would not exist today if not for Slaughter of the Soul. 

Slaughter Of The Soul is fantastic from start to finish and does not let off the throttle. It contains some of At The Gates best tracks and arguably some of the best tracks ever written in metal. Blinded By Fear, Slaughter Of The Soul, Under A Serpent Sun and Cold are some of the stand out tracks from the album. The album has also managed to stand the test of time and is amazing even in to date. Without giving too much of the album away I do wish to tell you about two of the tracks off this album, Blinded By Fear and the title track Slaughter Of The Soul. 

Blinded By Fear starts off incredibly fast and doesn’t slow down. Anders Bjoler and Martin Larssons work on the guitars make it impossible for you to not bang your head to. With the blistering fast pace tempo they set, It is quite impressive that Adrian Erlandsson is able to keep up the pace and blast away. Last but not least you have to admire how remarkable Tomas Lindberg’s screaming is, He makes you feel the rage in his voice and makes you want to scream alongside him, while making it sound majestic as hell. Slaughter Of The Soul is a whole other beast to tackle. While the track does have a similar style to Blinded By Fear it varies enough to make it truly remarkable and stand out, which is exactly what you expect from the title track. Unlike Blinded By Fear where you feel synonymous with the fast paced drumming and the rhythm of the guitarists it’s the vocals that truly stand out. The screaming is at another level, Its so raw and anger filled, yet at the same time its graceful and poetic. It’s a hard feeling to explain, which is why I recommend you listen to it yourself. 

At the end of the day Slaughter Of The Soul has everything a metal fan could desire. Amazing riffs, blistering solos, Pounding drums as well as screams to scare everyone on your block. If you have been living under a rock and haven’t heard this album I desperately urge you to give it a listen. It is widely regarded as one of the best albums out of any genre of music ever produced, It deserves that honor because every track is perfect. All in all, I would highly suggest listening to Slaughter Of The Soul.

Track listing 

01. Blinded By Fear

02. Slaughter Of The Soul

03. Cold

04. Under A Serpent Sun

05. Into The Dead Sky

06. Suicide Nation

07. World Of Lies

08. Unto Others

09. Nausea

10. Need

11. The Flames Of The End