Unknown to many, the best metal of the last half of the 90's has come from Scandinavia, particularly Sweden. This now-defunct band was one of the first to break out internationally, with a style that combines death metal, Slayer, and Iron Maiden with original European influences. At the gates defined a distinct guitar sound, playing lots of notes in their riffs instead of just chords, hitting on a technical and varied sound that almost makes you forget this is extreme death metal. Tempos are almost all fast, thrashing insanely along with those galloping riffs. And the whole thing just knocks you over, this being the perfect blend of aggression and technicality. Before this album, I disliked most death metal, and couldn't stand non-singers, but this album's high-pitched screaming vocals are comprehensible and fit the music so well that they actually turned me into a fan of this style, and the lyrics are better than most death, exploring psychic pain and anguish instead of guts and gore. A great album, and unfortunately, the band's last. The drummer, bassist, and one of the guitarists would later resurface in the similar but not as good The Haunted.

Well, I've listened to this album a number of times now, and it's proven difficult to come to a verdict on it. This album's hype and reputation precede it, and as in many cases it's been tough to reconcile an album's reputed greatness with what I actually hear coming from my speakers. Sure, the guitars are great, with lots of nice riffs and some terrific harmonic parts. The songwriting is also strong, as the band manages to inject melody into the death metal style with very little adulteration of the music's brute force. However, the bass is too often missing, and I don't find the drums to be anything especially interesting, especially not in comparison to the work of masters like Gene Hoglan, Pete Sandoval, and Paul Bostaph. This is definitely some high-quality music, but I don't see what makes THIS album more special than some of the other stuff that's come from Sweden in the past decade or so. At the Gates do, of course, deserve some credit for influence, as this album clearly provided at least a substantial part of the impetus for the direction Swedish metal took starting in the mid-1990's. Still, I just can't help but feel that this stuff has since been bettered by bands like Opeth, Amon Amarth, and The Crown; not to mention the fact that Death were churning out higher-quality progressive death metal years before "Slaughter of the Soul" came out. If you want to hear something in the same vein as this album, pick up the latest release from the Crown, "Crowned in Terror." That album features a more energetic vocal performance from Tomas Lindberg, as well as a lot more bass and vastly superior drumming.

At The Gates high point in their career was at the release of this record, Slaughter of The Soul. If you listen to even one song off this record you will know why. Although, Grunge was the new fad ATG stood strong and brought another unrelenting and speedy Melodic Death Metal record to have you bang your head. A timeless recording by a timeless band.

If you consider yourself a melodeath metal fan, or if you're a newcomer, it is absolutely mandatory that you're familiar with the following four words: "Slaughter Of The Soul." If there ever was a classic in this genre, this album, the fifth studio release and fourth full length from At The Gates, is it. This record did the same thing for melodeath that "Reign In Blood" did for thrash. It's often thought of as being the epitome of the genre, because of its importance. It almost single handedly created and established the Gothenburg metal sound. It has influenced almost everybody-from In Flames (who are also a highly influential melodeath group), to nine-out-of-ten modern American metalcore bands (Shadows Fall, for example).

"Slaughter" was also probably the heaviest melodic metal album to be released in the 1990's. Every song on here is very scorching and infectious, and loaded with propulsive, attacking the jugular rhythms, fiery, bludgeoning riffs, catchy, ferocious guitar leads, fast, thumping (at times pounding) drum patterns, winding, careening (albeit brief and un-complex) guitar solos, and high-pitched, black metal influenced, almost Death or Kreator-esque vocals from frontman Tomas Lindberg.

The pounding, blistering, lead-off track, "Blinded By Fear", is one of the album's highlights, but every track is essential listening. "Suicide Nation" is a good representation of the disc as a whole, since it's one of many brutal songs on here with a breakneck tempo, blowtorch riffs, blinding guitar leads, and a wild guitar solo to cap it all off. The title cut is fueled by scorching, propulsive guitar shredding; "Cold" boasts a brutal, surging guitar and pounding drum attack, including a brief, skillful drum solo and a melodic guitar break around two minutes in; and "Into The Dead Sky" is a slow, serene instrumental interlude with clean guitar strums and whooshing background noise (bands like Killswitch Engage probably got the idea for an acoustic interlude from this song.) And, lastly, "Unto Others" is a particularly attention-grabbing, memorable, and infectious song, because it includes a somewhat pretty flamenco guitar interlude.

If you buy the reissue (which you definitely should, and probably will because the original version of this C.D. is very hard to find), you'll get six extra songs which make for a great listen and are essential for your collection. These songs are "Legion" (a Slaughterlord cover), "The Dying" (an unreleased track from the "Slaughter Of The Soul" recording sessions), a Slayer cover of "Captor Of Sin", two 1995 demos (one is of "Unto Others" and the other is "Suicide Nation"), and "Bister Verklighet," a song originally done by the band No Security.

If one had to find fault with this album (aside from that the guitar solos are nothing really special), it would be that it sounds a little dated by now. It has aged very well, but if you're already initiated with melodic death metal, or if you've been listening to metalcore for the past several years, "Slaughter Of The Soul" may have a very small initial "wow factor" on you. But this isn't At The Gates' fault-how were they to know that a countless number of other bands were going to cop their sound? In fact, if you listen closely to a metalcore album, you should be able to hear that some of the riffs on that album have been lifted wholesale from "Slaughter Of The Soul". Thus, this record might take a little while to grow on you, but you still need to own it. If nothing else, at least buy it so you know where melodeath began, and so you can say you have a complete collection. And if you're new to the genre, there's no better place to start than right here.

The worst thing about At The Gates is that they split after touring for this album...why?! To form The Haunted...they're really cool...but not as much as ATG were! This cd is the death/thrash/melodic album! It breaks out with great energy right from the opening track "Blinded By Fear" and the band keep on playing fastly and furiosly during the whole cd-lenght. Definetely there are not many technical elements...but they're not intended to be in a context like "Slughter Of..." ...the hell, we're not talking about poor music at all!!! I think you do not need very much technique and arabesque musical textures when you're in front of such emotional/intense/aggressive riffs! A bit of "roughness", and believe it's a shame talking about this album in these terms, is consideralbe in death/thrash stuff...isn't it?

Last but not least we're pleased to introduce Mr.Andy LaRoque on the "Cold" guitar solo...a piece of art! There's anything more to say...put it on your cd-player and start a violent pogo against the walls of your room!