Title: Slaughter of the Soul
Artiste: At The Gates
Genre: Death Metal
Familiarity: Zero; have heard of them though
Recommended by: The Batlord
Expectations: Loud, noisy, fast, screechy or growled vocals, hopefully some good guitar solos. Absolutely no ballads, and I don't really expect to hear cello or harpsichord either.
1. Blinded by fear: Sort of sounds like someone scraping metal on metal (yeah) and a spoken vocal before it kicks up and hammers along. Vocal, to be fair, is not half bad; I can make out what's being sung. Decent start all right.
2. Slaughter of the soul: Like the trundling riff on this, thumps along really well. Just nothing really standing out to me at the moment. All good, just nothing particularly great as yet.
3. Cold: Has a kind of dramatic, almost warrior feel to it. I'm told this has one of the best neo-classical guitar solos in the subgenre. Interested to hear that. Oh, is that it? Ah, no, this has to be it, at exactly two minutes in. That's some fine shreddin', boy!
Think this one earns its Green. Yup.
4. Under a serpent sun: Oh and this is going Green too. Really like this. Glad to see they've shaken themselves out of that sort of samey slump they were in earlier and started playing decent, recognisable songs that are separate from each other. Love the solo here. Eat it Batty: I like solos, so what?
5. Into the dead sky: This is an unexpectedly beautiful instrumental, and if there were lyrics I would have to take it back about there being no ballads on the album. Superb.
6. Suicide nation: Man, this one tears along with a real sense of menace. Love it. The guitar just rips ya up the middle!
7. World of lies: Has a punchier, almost Slayer feel to it.
8. Unto others: Like the kind of staggered guitar approach here (don't ask: I know as much about playing guitar as I do about car engines!) and it struts along really nicely.
9. Nausea: Faster and angrier; great fretwork.
10. Need: More kind of a romp in this; oddly enough I hear elements of Manowar. Shut up Batty, I do. Is that a triangle at the end?
11. The flames of the end: Keyboards opening? Keyboards? More like progressive metal here, even progressive rock! Is this an instrumental? Oh now listen to that guitar bite in! ****ing excellent! Love this one.
End result: Melodic death metal (or any death metal) is not normally my thing, as you all know, but yeah: I can see why these guys are so highly rated and respected. After the first two tracks disappointed me somewhat I really got into it and it was a great ride.
So, Love or Hate? Another
Love.