At The Gates

Karl Hungus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRViek2t8TA

If there's one band that I never hear people around here talking about, it's At The Gates, and I'm actually a little suprised at that, considering how very influential they were. Not to mention that at the time, there wasn't really anything else out there that sounded quite like them, they were incredibly unique at the time.

Bands like Killswitch Engage, Darkest Hour, and probably loads of other Metalcore bands owe a huge debt to these guys who sadly broke up in 1996. A few of the members went on to form The Haunted after that. Not that I'm much of a fan of the music they've influenced, but I feel At The Gates did it much, much better.

Their best, and sadly final album, Slaughter Of The Soul, is an album I'd seriously recommend anyone here to get. It is, in my opinion, an unadulterated slice of metal history, as important as Napalm Death's Scum, or Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas.

Check it out.

Schism

Well said.
I only heard Slaughter of the Soul just last year but up until about a month ago it was still on my mp3 player. The musicianship is great, production is clean and crisp. It's quite simply an excellent album. Blinded by Fear, Cold, World of Lies and Legion stand out for me.

Alucard II

Slaughter of the Soul is ****ing epic; one of the most important metal releases of all time.

nadir

I'm a long term fan. ><

Angus MacGyver

Brilliant Band, Slaughter of the soul rules. Picked up The red in the sky is ours the other day, looking forward to it. Terminal spirit disease brilliant aswell

Pugsley

At the Gates were a superb band, got all their stuff about 6 years ago, one of the first metal bands I was listening too, absolutely superb stuff. Can't say I'm surprised noone talks about them though, considering they broke up over a decade ago, and their career was rather short despite how much they achieved with it.

CyberWaste

Ive been listening to these for years. And if you go to english forums, theyre mentioned alot. Good enough band, not amazing though IMO.

Den_M

I'm surprised Karl mentioned that he hasn't heard anyone praising them around here. I don't post all that often here but when i do I usually get some pro-At The Gates sentiments in. They're probably my number 1 metal band of all frickin' time! Terminal Spirit Disease and SOTS are works of art as far i'm concerned and With Fear... and The red in The Sky is Ours are amazing albums also. They're an example of a band that changed so much from album to album. A lot of people seem to enjoy bashing SOTS for some reason like it was their sell out album but they're the same people that would say Carcass' Heartwork sucks. **** em, those albums will still sound fresh when they're six foot under.

Karl Hungus

I don't know, I find a lot of bands who aren't around any more still get mentioned the odd time, such in comparisons and recommendations, but I rarely see mention of ATG. Sorry Den_M, your posts must be too boring to read.

Den_M wrote:

A lot of people seem to enjoy bashing SOTS for some reason like it was their sell out album but they're the same people that would say Carcass' Heartwork sucks. **** em, those albums will still sound fresh when they're six foot under.

I've absolutely no time for anyone who says Heartwork (Or Swansong for that matter) sucks.

Schism

I've said this before but Swansong and Heartwork are my favourite Carcass albums.

I dont agree with the way people label a band as something or peg them into a genre and any release afterwards (or prior) that doesn't conform to their expectation gets thrashed. It's all very well if its a sh!t album but for someone to say SotS for example was a sellout and disregard it on that judgement just annoys me.

Listen to he music not the genre. /rant

nonamemark

Earthworm Jim! wrote:

I've said this before but Swansong and Heartwork are my favourite Carcass albums.

Same here, At The Gates are brilliant too

It wasn't me!

I must say, I like chunks of Heartwork, but dislike some elements as well, and Swansong is even less to my taste with the exception of a few tracks. I just don't like the direction Carcass took with those albums. Their call, and fair enough, but I'll always prefer the earlier releases.

yevveh

ATG are the only (melodic) death metal band I've ever given two ****s about. Amazing stuff. Stardrowned and Raped By The Light of Christ stick out for me, though all of With Fear and SOTS are well worth listening to. I have TRITSIO too but I can't remember that. Cheers for reminding me about these guys, I'll give them another spin

Shiminay

I give a big thumbs up for At The Gates. That's all the recommondation anyone should need really

Karl Hungus

Earthworm Jim! wrote:

I've said this before but Swansong and Heartwork are my favourite Carcass albums.

I dont agree with the way people label a band as something or peg them into a genre and any release afterwards (or prior) that doesn't conform to their expectation gets thrashed. It's all very well if its a sh!t album but for someone to say SotS for example was a sellout and disregard it on that judgement just annoys me.

Listen to he music not the genre. /rant

Yeah, well you get that with some people.

I like a band that isn't afraid to do different things. Opeth for example, have some incredibly dynamics and aren't afraid of a change of pace. Damnation was a fantastic album, but thank god nobody was giving out about them selling out then.

DeadSkin

Just got my hands on Slaughter of the Soul today, and this thing fuppin' rocks.
Great riffs in there, highlight so far World of Lies.
Just what I've been lookin' for, over the last few months.
Had heard of ATG before, but never actually had heard any of their stuff.

That_Guy

I saw them when they played with Trivium and they were really good. Still haven't got around to buying any of their stuff.

That_Guy

My bad it was All That Remains who played with Trivium. oops.....

Karl Hungus

That_Guy wrote:

My bad it was All That Remains who played with Trivium. oops.....

lol