everyone who has ever explored Swedish death metal has At the Gates' _Slaughter of the Soul_, or at least had a metal-loving friend play it for them. that's a bloody good metal album! and rightly considered a classic. yet surprisingly the band's most startling and unique release is their obscure debut, _the red in the sky is ours_.

first i want to say that if you have read negative reviews of this album ignore them completely. I think there is something of a cop-out in saying, as some critics have, that this is some kind of "Entombed clone" or that it's immature. At the Gates is possessed of an impetuous musical ambition of the sort usually only found in the youngest metal bands, but they have crazy chops and progressive songwriting skills beyond their age. A valid comparison would be the earlier Dark Tranquillity albums - fast and tremolo-y, with an explicit melodic focus -- but at the same time being thrashier & deathier, with more of a tech/progmetal angle, and a violin. Jespers the violinist contributes a unique quality to about half the songs, fr'example with florid solos ("The Season to Come") and lamentful leads during an ultra-melodic metal fadeout ("Windows"), and fast trills with galloping double-bass and dual guitar leads ("Neverwhere"). Very unusual, and it is implemented with faultless taste. The songs are longer on average than their later tracks, with movement-like structures, spastic time-changes, and lacking the typical metal motivic progression. The riffs are completely deranged, the dual guitar playing evil and tight, and the drumming some of the most complex and impressive in the style. it may sound incoherent at first, which is perhaps why many reviewers dislike this album when compared to their strike-n-recoil tracks on later discs. The variety is also remarkable. When you hear songs like "Claws of Laughter Dead" (sic) and "Neverwhere" you'll at times think you were hearing something like Atheist; when you hear "Within" you'll wonder why this album isn't revered in underground prog-metal circles; and when you hear the short, weird "The Scar", with its unsettling whispers and electronically processed dual guitar constructions, you'll feel a shiver pass through your flesh. The production would be dated out of context, but most of the early albums of this style sounded like this so it's basically idiomatic and suits it rather well. If you are looking for some of the best, "old style" of Gothenburg metal then don't forget to pick this up with your Dark Tranq and In Flames albums.

"At the Gates" are mostly remembered for their final album "Slaughter of the Soul" which had an enormous impact on the swedish scene and spawned a lot of (mostly deeply inferior) immitators who unfortunately gave the term "melodic death metal" a bad name by constantly dumbing this blend of music down to happy-go-lucky singalongs. None of this rather perplexing evolution is at the fault of At the Gates of course, "Slaughter of the Soul" is a great album that was also my introduction to the band and it's still miles above the kindergarten-metal it, unintentionally spawned.

Their debut is quite different. Totally maddening upon first contact, there isn't much that will stick in your head after the final chords of "City of screaming Statues" blast out of your speaker for the first time. The band's intention clearly seemed to be pulling out a more "progressive" blend of death metal, different from most other swedish bands around that time. As if the weird structure of the songs was not enough ( there are more breaks and tempo changes in "Claws of laughter dead" alone then on the whole "Slaughter of the Soul" record), they deceided to grace their sound with the use of a violin in some spots, adding an entirely different dimension to the already quite "far out" sound on the album. This does not make for an easy listening experience, especially when you expected an album as straight forward as "Slaughter of the Soul".

"The Red in the Sky is ours" sounds almost jazzy in some places, and it takes a lot of time before you finally get used to the sound. But once you realize what the band was doing on here, it's nothing short of awsome. While not as technically able as on their later work, the band's ambitious trying of working Iron Maiden-like guitar melodies in the traditional swedish deathcore sound shines through in the brilliant "Kingdom Gone". "Neverwhere" is a masterpiece of structure, just like "Within", "Claws of laughter dead" or the hyper-blasting title track (which, after 2 minutes of total ear carnage flows right into the violin piece "The season to come").

Frontman Tomas prooves that he's truly a poet among the writers of lyrics, and despite any concrete sense of just how to take his words, the lyrics of this album are fascinating to read (some of it was also written by Alf, one of the guitar players). He would go on writing even crazier stuff on the band's follow up "With fear I kiss the burning darkness", these swedes sure know their mushrooms. His poetry adds to the music perfectly, making "At the Gates" a real one of a kind band.

In the end, this album is not for the squimish. If you want a collection of catchy tunes in a death-metal shell, look elsewhere. If you are willing to give a record time to manifest in your head and you love your death/doom/grind/metal than run, don't walk and pick this album up before it's unaviable. You'll be rewarded with one of the best genre albums to date.

I'd heard often enough that this was the definitive ATG work (not surprising; a bands first album is often considered their best) but I wasted too much time before getting it - a shame because it is everything it is said to be and more. For those coming in from the Slaughter of the Soul end of things, this album is the complete opposite. There is less in the fast-tempo department and more room for odd rythms, turnaround patterns and weird time signatures; try tapping your foot to this! Several songs feature an extended violin break; at this time there was a full-time violinist in the band, a breath of fresh air for early 90's metal. Every song is vital and has a life of its own; if you're not yet an At the Gates fan, this is a great place to start.

One of the fist melodic Death Metal bands, At The Gates maintained chaos within the melodic pieces. I have not heard any Death Metal vocalist sound quite like At The Gates, and they had a great drummer. Kingdom Gone, Within, and City of Screaming Statues really stands out here. This was one of the first albums I bought when starting out in the extreme metal scene. It is really sad that this band only put out four full length albums. Highly recommended to the melodic Death Metal listener.

At The Gates is a highly influential band that's basically looked up to by 80% of melodic metal bands nowadays. However, there is more to this band than just "Slaughter Of The Soul". And this will be an insight to their very first full-length, "The Red In The Sky Is Ours".

Released in 1992, this was when At The Gates were a different band from a few years following after. This CD is more dark, technical and brutal than the rest of their works. They laced more death metal into their sound at this time. The CD has insane riffs and melodic leads, and the tempos really make it stand out. Drums are excellent here, especially in "The Red In The Sky Is Ours". It is a real blistering album that deserves to be heard and not to be missed.