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At the Gates > With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness > Reviews
At the Gates - With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness

With Beer I Kiss the Burning Fartness - 55%

Annable Courts, February 7th, 2024

The metal world's favorite melo-death doormen release a sophomore album and this time, they got the memo from Sweden's national death metal association that they needed to align with the guitar tone so they could get that national authenticity stamp. And so they did. What was a rather balanced and accurate tone on the first album has now been buzz-sawed: low and high ends up 11 out of 10 for a super bassy effect and treble seemingly out the roof.

This makes for a heavy sound, no doubt, but the album as a result is also flat out difficult to listen to, which is a rare occurrence for this sub-genre. There's enough articulation on the guitars that it doesn't sound like a completely crushed compressed and fake tone; although hardly balanced; but the stridency of the high mids do skin the ears a bit and the low end comes across as distinctly bloated and blunt, far from any notion of sonic equilibrium. Listening to the first two records, one could easily mistake the second here for the debut as it sounds all together messier and blurrier.

Be that as it may, the song-writing is improved here. The composition sacrifices some of the progressive claims that riddled the debut, for a leaner riffage ethos taking firm position in the songs granting it enough consideration for more fluidity - this, in reaction to the constantly evolving composition from the previous release. Here, the riffs have more chance to settle, but there is still a mobile action to the guitar work and that fickleness somewhat remains.

The lack of direction is still palpable in this one, though. The style has gravitated more towards a permanently melodic philosophy, and despite the band's efforts to generate more concision and draw closer to optimal song-writing, the melodies rarely ever hit the target they seem to be eyeing. Not quite aimless, the riffs seem to wander about while probing at a general area between epic and dark and sorrowful, as a kind of mixture between progressive and conventional writing but neither one nor the other. It never quite seems like it's definitively achieving what it's setting out to do. Very few moments on here could be described as having that elusive "catchy" quality that's so crucial for any music, and melodic music particularly. For all the riffs it has, it's got few "good riffs" - that is riffs that stay with the listener or grow on them and that sound original and compellingly emotive. This has steadiness rather than climax.

It very much sounds like a band that has an idea what they want to be but are also noticeably confused about what they are.

What Is It With This Band and Their Excessively Long Album Titles - 85%

Toggamsyx, September 4th, 2023

When I was around 16, The Red in the Sky is Ours used to be my absolute favorite album, and I used to consider it "the pinnacle of musical creativity". Back then I was depressed, lonely, felt my life was over and I pretty much just listened to extreme metal... now I listen to many more genres of music. That is to say, I no longer hold that opinion (and, frankly, picking a favorite album is like asking me to pick between a favorite child), but that album is still incredibly special and a desert-island pick for me. I'd rather not make a review of that album (for now, anyway), as I don't feel I'm up to the task, so I'd like to give this one a shot, probably the most overlooked record of classic-era At the Gates.

With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness is definitely the work of a more professional, well-rehearsed band, but this is still very similar to their predecessor. This is a more controlled beast, but it's still a beast nonetheless; the songwriting may not be as wacky, but what they lack in weird experimentation (which is still present, albeit in smaller quantities), they make up for in quality riffs and ass-kickery. I'd say this is the most pure melodic death metal record AtG ever put out, as their later stuff feels more like thrashy power metal with growls and their older recordings are too osdm sounding (depending on who you ask, I personally disagree).

There's a lot to unpack from this record, as the compositions are rather technical and complex (courtesy of Alf Svensson). There's melodic, yet distinctively death metal, mostly-tremolo counterpoint, sometimes harmonized, sometimes dissonant. Main song-writer Alf Svensson, who was largely responsible for the brilliance that was early At the Gates, is a genius of his craft and an absolute riff-machine, he creates twisted, warped, bizarre songs like no other (and apparently got inspiration for some riffs by playing tapes he acquired from other death metal acts in reverse). There's also some occasional black metal sounding stuff (the last remains of their earlier band Grotesque), such as Blood of the Sunsets or Primal Breath. The drummer is never content on just keeping a beat (not at this point, anyway); he's extremely talented and is constantly throwing something new at you, it's like he can't sit still. Blast beats are seldom used, only when needed to make a moment more intense, and there's a lot of fills and other fancy shit I don't know enough to talk about. The song structures are kind of weird and all over the place (a trademark of early AtG), but, compared to TRitSIO, they're overall more straightforward and cohesive and pack one hell of a punch. The Burning Darkness stands out from the rest of the album for being the weirder track, but every track has their own uniqueness injected into them, be it through experimentation or melodic eargasms. Some people say the first half of the album is better and I generally agree. While I wouldn't necessarily call the second half a complete drop in quality, the first is undoubtedly more cohesive and memorable. Finally, Primal Breath is, to this day, the longest song these guys have written and a lot of fans seem to praise it, however, I have to disagree: yes it contains arguably some of the greatest, most memorable riffs in their career, but the song just repeats itself over and over and there's hardly a need for it to be that long.

Ok let's discuss the bad stuff that keeps this album from being truly great. I'll start with the production. The statement I'm about to make may sound blasphemous to some readers, so, please, be careful when proceeding: Sunlight Studio has to be one of the shittiest recording studios that's ever touched death metal, and this is no exception. This album has all the trademarks of the Sunlight sound: a guitar tone that sounds like sandpaper, drums that sound like he's hitting pieces of cardboard and a bass that doesn't fucking exist (except when nothing else is playing). It is genuinely baffling to me how this was ever considered a good recording studio. There's good Sunlight recordings, but those are incredibly rare (some examples I can think of are Darkthrone, Amorphis and Utumno (Across the Horizon EP)). Ok, I finally got that out of my system, so onto the next (and last) complaint: the vocals, which people generally seem to praise. I remember the first time I listened to this record and how I frowned as soon as the vocals kicked in (in combination with the production). I have no idea what happened to his voice from the debut to here, but they are terrible, and yet I can hardly imagine any other voice in this. It feels like he's just screaming his lungs out. Tomas has never been a particularly good vocalist, but his voice just fitted the maniacal, twisted vibe of their debut (which wouldn't've fit here, anyway). Admittedly, it doesn't really bother me as much anymore, but that first time was a shock. Also, those occasional effects he uses on his vocals do not help whatsoever. Oh, and the Discharge cover sucks and hardly fits the album (and the original is much better).

Overall, this might not be as good, memorable, twisted, unique or transcendent (or any other positive adjective) as The Red in the Sky is Ours (or Gardens of Grief), but hardly anything is. Nothing here is as intense or mind-bending as their predecessor, but they still did one hell of a job, and this record easily stands on its own. To be honest, it's kind of surprising how generally ignored this album is (lost amidst the endless TRitSIO VS SotS debate) since it's pretty similar to their earlier recordings. Any fan of their predecessor that hasn't given this a listen yet should give it a shot, as anyone looking for something that scratches a similar itch will be pleased. This is an album with lots of substance, depth and replayability, something their later albums lack. Alf-era At the Gates is really something special and there's not much like it... too bad the band don't know how to play these (or any of their earlier) songs anymore!

Overshadowed by other At The Gates albums - 95%

LedZeppelin2112, April 13th, 2023

When At The Gates comes up in discussion, it’s usually Slaughter of the Soul that people speak of. It’s a very divisive album, with some loving its catchy songwriting and crisply written riffs, while others criticize its direct influence on the metalcore scene. It’s maybe a step too far into a polished mainstream for some listeners but the magnetic energy can’t be denied. A lot of fans (myself included) recognize the debut, The Red in the Sky is Ours as the band’s finest moment with its almost progressive minded twists and turns and truly unique song craftsmanship. It’s arguably the best melodic death metal album ever made (if you can even call it that) but With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness deserves its fair share of praise as well, and never seems to be respected as much.

In almost every way, Burning Darkness is a step down from its predecessor. Granted, they’re minuscule steps because this is still an amazing album, but it’s still some regression nonetheless. The songs have gotten less wild and unorthodox, the musicianship is not as impressive (again, it’s still amazing), and the youthful energy of the first record is to some extent tempered (they must have been on crack during that first album because this is still pretty insane). But it still has all the ingredients of an amazing release, and it should be treated as such.

While the riffs are not as polished as the later Slaughter of the Soul or even Terminal Spirit Disease (another underrated record), they have this loose, freeform feel to them that makes Burning Darkness feel more organic. At The Gates fills the runtime with so many ideas and condense it all into a 45 minute timeframe which gives the record a schizophrenic energy, one of unrelenting chaos. There are some straight up bangers like “Beyond Good and Evil,” “The Architects,” and “Stardrowned” which would have already been great songs that are elevated by second or third riffs to mix with the mains that give the songs a more experimental edge to them. “Through the Red” closes the album out as basically a two parter with a big pause in the middle before transitioning one last time into a different form of chaos.

I hate to keep giving praise to the debut in this album’s review, but the experimentation in The Red in the Sky is Ours was probably even more out there, so much so that it’s easy to get lost in that record if you aren’t paying close attention. In Burning Darkness it’s a little bit easier, because there are some legitimately catchy moments in songs like “Blood of the Sunsets” and “Non-Divine” which give the listener a break from the endless tempo changes and dizzying changes in directions that At the Gates keep pulling the listener into.

Some of the most boundary pushing moments come in “Primal Breath” which is nearly seven and a half minutes long and the longest At The Gates song to date. It feels like a trek through a maze with many twists and turns and new melodies around every corner and it never loses any of its muster. In contrast, the three minute “Raped by the Light of Christ” displays a lot of jagged riffage that still manages to condense several ideas into a much shorter runtime and done in a much catchier manner, closer to the next couple releases rather than the previous.

No matter which track you pick out to dissect, you will find extremely experimental compositions that are constantly evolving thanks to the guitar duo of Anders Björler and Alf Svensson. The drumming at times can feel more punk inspired than death metal oriented, presented by Adrian Erlandsson who never seems to sync up with the buzzing guitars, making the record sound all the more chaotic. Jonas Björler’s bass, while sort of separated from the guitars on some tracks has its own buzzing quality to it, and Jonas gets a couple of nice isolated moments throughout. And of course without Tomas Lindberg on vocals the energy of this record would have never been what it was or is today; his strained cries have aged very well and although it’s not a traditional death metal growl, he brings a certain level of untamed ferocity to this release that adds a lot of charm to the record.

With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness and its predecessor came at a time before melodic death metal was a fully formed genre of its own. While they clearly inspired a lot of the more polished melodeath acts, their innovation and experimentation remains underrated. They were ambitious and unique almost in a tech death sense, and had very few peers that could match them. Of course none of their imitators have ever come close to real thing either; as much as I enjoy Slaughter of the Soul, it’s kind of a shame they lost the more experimental aspects to their sound with each release up to that point because that record has become much easier to imitate, while the first few records remain classics that haven’t been perfectly mirrored yet, and likely never will be.

Through the blue - 85%

Hames_Jetfield, December 10th, 2020

On their second release, the Swedes from At The Gates fucked up, lost their originality and went into a melodic shit...with this opinion I have heard once. None of these things, because although the band actually changed and decided to go into pure melodic death metal, they did not record a bad music on "With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness" - and this is said by a person who also appreciates their debut the most. Besides, At The Gates is one of the pioneers of this style.

A year after the release of "The Red In The Sky Is Ours", the quintet from At The Gates decided to record much simpler, more transparent material without any major additions (eg. the violin disappeared). Therefore, many more melodies appeared in the music, but also fragments that were not too complicated/easier to digest. And despite the fact that the previous styling offered more and was more unique, the "new version" of At The Gates also fared similarly well. The music has a different feeling here compared to "The Red..."; it's more catchy and without any clear combinations. Even where the band speeds up over 4 minutes ("Primal Breath", "The Break Of Autumn", "Ever-Opening Flower", "Blood Of The Sunsets", "Non-Divine" - generally quite often), the band serve a lot of melodies, without any sweetening, a la In Flames. The latter alone should be a sufficient guarantee of the excellence of this material.

Of the most specific songs that fit into the new At The Gates style, it's worth mentioning the opening longplay "Beyond Good And Evil", followed by "Raped By The Light Of Christ" and the closing song "Through The Red", surprisingly direct and without melody death cliché. "Stardrowned" also looks interesting, strongly "chopped" and in the style of the first album, nicely diversifying the simpler playing. The longer songs should also be mentioned, among others "Primal Breath" and "Non-Divine", just as good and quite concrete despite their length, and at the same more extensive. However, I am not entirely convinced in this set by the hidden cover of Discharge ("The Nightmare Continues"), which - apart from the instruments - does not offer anything interesting (unless someone likes noise vocals). It exists as if in isolation from the rest of the songs.

Well, as you can see, it is better than good, the album is listened to with interest and it does not reject the flood of melo-death patents that have replaced the more extreme ones. Although "The Red..." is a year older than the discussed "With Fear...", the latter can also be kept for a long time, despite some simplifications.

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2019/08/at-gates-with-fear-i-kiss-burning.html

Enter melodic death metal's most challenging and enigmatic album - 100%

noisevortex, March 21st, 2020

In a time where the concept of melodic death metal had yet to be fully conceived, Gothenburg-based At the Gates came out with one of the most impenetrable melodic death metal albums ever made. Following a debut that drew attention for its experimental take on death metal, the band was looking to build a tighter and more aggressive sound. The result of their efforts was the intriguing With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness. No less shrouded in darkness and insanity than their previous material yet so much more fierce in its assault.

Often regarded as one of At the Gates' weaker releases, With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness was deemed an ambitious but directionless album. The songwriting was often described as aimless and disjointed, supposedly resulting from the band trying to cram as many ideas as possible into each song. At the same time, however, the abstruse nature of With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkess is one of its most potent qualities.

Largely written by Alf Svensson, the complex compositions are frantic and schizophrenic, displaying a level of technicality that would not make it unthinkable to count With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness among early technical death metal albums. Svensson's unusual method of occasionally reverse-engineering riffs from playing demos backwards resulted in songs that challenged the contemporary death metal sound.

As was the case with their debut, the drumming once again linked At the Gates to grindcore, to the point of the band being labeled "swedish grind masters" in a promotional vinyl pressing for the album. At the same time At the Gates further contributed to the formation of melodic death metal as the previously warring guitars started to sound more harmonic, forming a basic melodic core at the center of the dark inferno.

Showing their progressive side on songs like Stardrowned and The Burning Darkness, At the Gates once more pushed the boundaries of death metal. The progressive bass playing during the intro to Stardrowned makes for an especially memorable moment due to its out-of-left-field effect. Centerpiece Primal Breath on the other hand comes closest to what can be considered a full-fledged melodic death metal song on this album.

As the longest song At the Gates have released to date, Primal Breath is a seven minute epic of picturesque lyrics and grand, wistful melodies. Slowly winding towards its climax similar melodic sensibilities can only be found in the racing, fiery guitars on Non-Divine or the disturbingly evil outro to Blood of the Sunsets.

At the front of the vicious and razorsharp instrumentation, Tomas Lindberg howls, bellows and roars, making more extensive use of the higher end of his register. As one of the most distinctive voices in 90s death metal, Lindberg's screams really drive home the insane and blasphemous imagery in his lyrics.

As something that is often neglected in metal, the lyrics for With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness are especially worth noting as they constitute one of the most fascinating aspects of the album. After the introspective The Red In The Sky Is Ours that put a heavy focus on themes of insanity, At the Gates now turned towards christianity and anti-religious themes. Mirroring the often counter-intuitive songwriting, the lyrics are cryptic, utilizing chromatics as well as cosmic and biblical symbolism.

On With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness Lindberg's lyricism once again paints vivid yet abstract images. Whereas songs like Primal Breath and The Break Of Autumn are remarkably pictorial, pieces like Blood of the Sunsets and Raped By The Light Of Christ bring back the surreal visuals of The Red In The Sky Is Ours.

Similarly to the instrumentation, however, it is never quite evident if any meaning found in Lindberg's lyrics is truly intentional. In this sense, the cover art for With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness perfectly captures the music on the album. The painting made by Åke Hodell titled "220 Volt Buddha" is a minimalistic piece. It can be assumed that a stained glass window can be seen from inside a building at nighttime. Bright moonlight floods in through the window, carrying a reflection of the motif on the glass. Below the window appears to be a small table on which a selection of flasks or similar containers can be seen. Tomas Lindberg recalls chancing upon the piece in an artbook and being struck by its sexual and religious symbolism as well as the beautiful colors.

For those receptive to it an ominous but irresistably alluring maze of unfathomable darkness will unfold on With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness, whereas more pragmatic listeners may find an album that lost itself somewhere along the way in a rush of ambition. Nevertheless, and if only for this contrast, With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness remains an enigmatic piece of death metal history.

Attribution: https://www.noisevortex.com/articles/looking-back-at-the-gates-with-fear-i-kiss-the-burning-darkness/

Terrifying ride - 84%

gasmask_colostomy, November 21st, 2015

Now, At the Gates have been discussed almost to death, but a lot of people still don't really know what to do with this album. Is it a dark cult gateway like their debut album? Is it a speed-hungry, stripped-down trip through hooks and riffs like their infamous 'Slaughter of the Soul'? The answer to both questions is "certainly not", though we are somewhat closer to the pure death and extreme influences of the earlier work. What puzzles me slightly is that there aren't a great deal of bands who have imitated this sound, despite the hundreds who have pilfered from the other releases. 'With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness' remains an oddity, a piece of the jigsaw that doesn't quite fit.

For me, that usually draws me towards music rather than pushing me away. I've had this album for a long time, perhaps 6 or 7 years, and I still don't feel like I've penetrated to its core and extracted all that it has to offer. The common complaint of this release seems to be that the songwriting is often messy and occasionally incoherent, which I agree with at least in part, since there aren't any of the popular song structures displayed on 'Slaughter of the Soul' and a lot of parts never repeat and are even prevented from developing by the swift changes thrown in. The melodic riffing style, created by the twin guitars of Anders Björler and Alf Svensson, provides a lot of "juice", never drying out the album by dull plodding or furiously bland riffs, though they rarely prolong any particular section to memorable lengths, other than in the sombre trawl through 'Primal Breath'. What that means is that hooks and technicality must be meshed together into one chimera, which is notoriously tricky. While I don't think that At the Gates succeed with that here, we do end up with an album that throws constant surprises at the listener from start to finish, using a progressive approach to expand on the dark beauty of the previous album, even at the risk of that glowering power possessed by 'The Red in the Sky Is Ours'. 'With Fear...' ends up less instinctively brilliant, though equally as compelling and at least as dark, since the obscurity of some of the twists and turns in its songs create great gloomy gulphs and sinister precipices from which Tomas Lindberg ably torments the listener.

The production and mixing of the album are both major factors in its overall sound. The guitars are frighteningly trebly at times, meaning that listening at high volume for any length of time is a painful experience, even if it accentuates the dazzling light of the melodies and the sharp edge of the riffs. The guitars thus always remain in focus, with the percussion battling valiantly in competition for a similar space in the mix. Adrian Erlandsson gives a terrifically nuanced performance on the drums, playing not only the more traditional death parts with furious aplomb, but also mastering the head-spinning time changes in 'The Architects' and ensuring that the stop/start nature of the song doesn't wear too thin. The bottom end of the sound is surprisingly full for all that, including a gut-level punch from the dueling guitars, although Jonas Björler doesn't peer through the mud too often. With all these busy elements fighting for prominence, Lindberg does well to fit his vocals into the gaps in the songs, especially since there are many odd shapes between riffs and brisk shifts between sections that could result in hazard. His scream is visceral and brutal, yet never descends lower than the guitars, actually roaring at a higher pitch than almost any death metal vocalist you would care to mention from 1993, which gives the songs a more desperate quality than sinister, so that when he screams out in 'The Break of Autumn' "silent explosions in my universe of pain", one doesn't dare question its sincerity or poetry. The lyrics, too, are anything but straightforward, dipping a toe into the natural pool of Amorphis while imbuing those peaceful images with a sense of chaos and unrest.

Listening to this album as a whole is admittedly quite a tiring experience, since the sharpness of the guitars, the harshness of Lindberg's voice, and the jagged song structures all take concentration and endurance to follow for 45 minutes. That said, the quality doesn't drop a great deal during the album's length, resulting in few disappointments in individual songs. 'The Architects' doesn't totally satisfy, largely because it gets a little trapped in its own technical web, while 'Blood of the Sunsets' doesn't quite have the atmosphere or the riffs to equal the other efforts. 'Ever-Opening Flower', despite an oddly hopeful name, dwells in complete darkness, especially the venomous howls and doom-laden riff that splatter over the area between 1:30 and 2:00; 'The Break of Autumn' is similarly intense and dominated by a labyrinth of riffs; the real centrepiece, however, must be 'Primal Breath', which trills, chugs, and slashes through 7 minutes in a dominant display of non-lead melody and ingenious guitar interplay, also proving among the most memorable moments here. Nevertheless, for the full terrifying ride, it's best to hit play and see what happens to your mind. I wish you good luck.

A constantly evolving work of art. - 80%

tshred666, February 11th, 2012

My perception of this album has been constantly changing. The first time I listened to it I felt it to be a very soft and elegant. But as I listened to it more often, I picked up on its subtleties, such as the blend of the dark and sinister sounds of Stockholm death metal and Norwegian black metal, the classical use of counterpoint, and the haphazard song progression.

Now part of what makes this album unique is the overall sound. I have yet to find an album with such rough production that has this kind of grace and beauty. Tompa's black metal influenced shrieks sound like a more refined version of Varg. Ferocious and powerful, yet not overbearing to the point where it's down right excessive like Varg's voice on the early Burzum records. The bass is somewhat buried under the flurry of drums and guitars, but sticks through sometimes and makes the floorboards shake with sub-sonic breaks. The guitars sound like graceful saws digging into flesh and bone, sounding like a half-way point between quiet, lo-fi, and fuzzy black metal and sludgy, gritty entombed style death metal. Adrian's kit is a bit shaky here and there, sometimes sounding clear through the mix, sometimes being buried underneath the mass of writhing guitars.

The lyrics are obtuse and pretty hard to decipher. With The Red... it's easy to tell that most of the songs had to with blasphemy and insanity, but with this album I just can't really tell what they're trying to say. The only song I can figure out is "raped by the light of christ", which I can assume is saying take control of your own destiny and don't surrender your will to blind faith.

This is something I'd definitely recommend to a fan of black metal and the more classical influenced melo-death (like the early Dark tranquility releases). Despite some flaws (mostly the tendency to recycle some riffs into other songs), this is a fairly enjoyable listen that might appeal to some death metal fans (like myself).

At The Gates Best Work - 95%

heavymetalninja, May 22nd, 2008

I dont understand the average rating of 75% for this album. For me this stands as ATG's best album. Ive only been into them for a few months, and at first couldnt particularly get into them after just trying their first album "The Red In The Sky Is Ours" but now i love At The Gates, and cannot wait for them at bloodstock.

This album is one which makes me look at a band like Arch Enemy and wonder why it is classed as melodic death metal? Most modern "melodeath" bands seem to have more in common with a blend of power and thrash metal than melodic death metal. For me this album is the complete culimnation of melodic death metal, hell it even sounds pretty close to black metal (a good thing by my book) just with the guitar playing more complex and melodic lines.

As for the music, At The Gates paint vivid images within my mind, with a very complex album with a vast number of riffs all flowing from one another. The guitars interact incredibly well with variatoins on riffs hich makes listening through headphones a greatly enjoyable experience. The guitars mainly play riffs which are quite high and almost all tremolo picked, it doesnt feature a great deal of heaviness or bombast but the songs are nonetheless definately beautiful.

The vocals are very similar to those in black metal and fit in very well with the overall sound. Some fans of brutal death metal could possibly see this album rooted to high in treble regions, but it allows for bass work to be distinguished easily and creates atmosphere.

Overall it is a stunning album with no weak songs. It is unlikely most things i have ever heard and possibly the quintessential melodic death metal album. Try finding the song "Raped By Christ" and if you like that you will love the rest of the album. It's all down to taste at the end of the day, but out of all of ATG's albums this has more feeling and more interesting riffs than The Red In The Sky Is Ours, but still retains a mysticism and underground metal feeling that Terminal Spirit Disease and Slaughter Of The Soul do not (despite still being very good albums). If you're a fan of only latter day ATG this might seem raw as those albums are very produced, strucutred and finished, but this is a beautiful and epic gem with real feeling.

Their Greatest Effort - 90%

antipath, February 25th, 2008

I've been an At the Gates fan for nearly 10 years now. Like most of their fans, I was introduced to them through Slaughter of the Soul. For a long time, as I tracked down their harder to find other releases, I held that final album of theirs to be untouchable, and indeed, I went through a long Gothenburg phase as I was finishing high school, and entering college. It was with the added maturity that comes in one's 20's that I was able to realize how banal the "Gothenburg" sound was, and how unlike the originators, namely At the Gates, the new pretenders to the throne had become. It was also not until I heard Terminal Spirit Disease, and Gardens of Grief that I would realize how overrated Slaughter of the Soul was. Now, after familiarizing myself with them, and having put some rather serious life experience under my belt, that last record of theirs has been pushed to the bottom of my list in favor of their second full length.

With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness was the last At the Gates album that I heard, and at first, I was not impressed. I admit, the first listen was confusing, and sounded chaotic to me. It took me years before I finally "got it." And this is an album that is not for every one, you really do have to "get it," there is a moment when it clicks, and the whole thing makes perfect sense. It was their most lyrically mature and adventurous record, and their most musically adventurous. Everything after would strive for catchiness, which I have to say, in my opinion, is a bid toward the lowest common denominator, those folks who are uneasy when lyrics don't rhyme, and riffs are not straightforward.

With that off my chest, I can explain what it is about this record that has put it into my top ten of all time. I could go song by song, and explain why each song is so memorable, but that would take hours, and no one would read the 3,000 letter essay I could type on the subject, so instead I will go for primarily a general review. I'll start witht he riffs. They are indeed chaotic, and they shift in tempo, timing, and mood constantly. But that is the brilliance of them. Songs start mellow and introspective, then creep into something violent and furious. The acoustic passages are melancholy, lending a feeling of utter solitude to the record, which seems like a theme that overrides everything you hear. There are moments when the music swells into almost epic passages where one gets the feeling of being invincible in their complete aloneness. And other passages break through that make one feel completely alone and despondent. The melodies are there, and the attentive ear can hear how distinct they are. The changes in mood are most effective in some songs "Raped by the Light of Christ" builds slowly and bursts into a defiant rage. "The Break of Autumn" has a melodic creshendo that puts most so called Melo-Death bands of today to shame, while escaping being over the top the way every one seems to be now. "Primal Breath" ebbs and flows for those patient enough to listen. "With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness" seems simple at first, but when a careful listen is given, one can hear that it is actually an experiement in subtlely building melodies, and shows great restraint even in constant variation. Few times are there Death Metal riffs that can be fast, and brutal, but at the same time somber. This album is full of such riffs.

What I love most about this record is the lyrics. Some of the best they penned, and perhaps some of the best that I've seen in Death Metal altogether. At the same time that every one else was making songs about opening up rib cages and eating the maggots inside, dissecting teenage virgins, or cutting up their next door neighbor in the name of satan, At the Gates was making songs about nature, love, passion, and the place that the human soul held in the face of eternity. These are not topics that excite 15 year olds eager to scare their parents and the cheerleaders that sit in front of them in math class, these are topics for people who have life experience and who think about things outside of themselves. Solitude is a big concept here, but never is it self pitying, rather, it is expressed as a necesity of life, as a part of being human. Songs like "The Break of Autumn," and "Raped by the Light of Christ" best exemplifiy this. The idea of passion and love come up frequently, but not in the usual metal way of frustration at unattainable girls and such. Instead we see the idea the attachment can both submerge the self, and at the same time, be desperately desired. "Stardrowned" and "Non-Devine" use effective metaphors to convey this. Even better, there are several attacks on christianity, but they are done in a mature manner. No simple "I hate god, satan is my master, I worship him at midnight in the forest" garbage here, instead, we are given a sensible, and restrained expression of how oppressive organized religion is on the human soul and on human nature, with out being fed cartoonish fluff and Alice Cooper theatrics. Perhaps it is how rife this record is with metaphors that makes it so powerful. I am not spoon fed thoughts, instead, the lyrics make me think, and perplex me, even as they can be ambiguous at times, they are very satisfying, because what I take them to mean fits me perfectly. Its Death Metal for the thinking man, and thus, the brilliance of this record is lost on most people.

If you are tired of simplistic music, check this one out. Give it a few listens and listen to it carefully. It is meant to be experienced more than heard, and every time I play it, I hear something new, feel something new. The reason that this one is the most burried in all their catalogue, is that it was a record that required the listener to think, and sadly, even metal heads can be sheep sometimes.

Great material with absolutely painful production - 67%

natrix, January 25th, 2008

Between the sublime greatness that is The Red In the Sky Is Ours, and their "breakthrough," Slaughter of the Soul, ATG put out this album. While it is clearly a step forward as far as musicianship, it's really lacking in the sound and songwriting area. While I enjoy both of the aforementioned albums, their debut has to be one of the most original death metal albums ever. This one took a really, really long time to grow on me, and I almost gave up on it due to the sound.

Whereas the first album had really disturbing material that took you on a journey through dark psychosis, and Slaughter of the Soul has linear structures, this has technicality and jarring structures that sometimes lead you nowhere. Kind of like leading you into a maze and then abandoning you. And it's really a shame, because Adrian gives his best drum performance EVER here, and the guitars are both doing a lot more unparralleled work, but there's just too much going on all the time. Tomas...well, he still sounds quite visciously deranged.

"The Break of Autumn" is a prime example of the faults of this album, as well as my favourite song on here. Just when you start to really enjoy a certain riff, they throw something else in, completely throwing you off guard. You can hear Anders Bjorler really starting to have an influence on this album with the more logical melodic riffs, and this is probably the best writing that At the Gates ever had, but not enough work with the song structures themselves.

It might be the production too, that disrupts me. It's really trebly, which makes it feel grating. I once listened to this and thought "wow, I wish that they could have just gotten the Sunlight sound with Tomas Skogsberg," but it is actually Tomas at Sunlight who recorded this. And Fred Estby. Goddamn, how could that trinity of elements fail to make this sound even at least palatable? One of the strengths of the debut was that gooey low end on the guitars that seemed to strangle you and pull you into the maelstrom of riffs. Now it just seems kind of hollow and without real punch. You can hear most of what Adrian is doing, luckily, but more emphasis on the double bass work would have been really nice. There seems to be no low end, so crushing riffs like on "Blood of the Sunsets" just glance over you. There is a lot of variation in the guitar work, allowing both Anders and Alf to shine simulaneously, but it's just torture on your ears to listen to.

For the parts of this album that work, they work really will, and I dare say that some of the ideas are better than the debut. Obviously, the flipside is that there are equally uselessly technical parts that do nothing but disrupt the listening experience. I'd really like to give this a higher score, but sadly...I cannot.

Dark nihilistic emotions - 80%

BeingAtWar, September 9th, 2006

The seminal masters of melodic death metal return on their second album with a dark and dynamic portrayal of the soul that goes beyond good and evil to find only pain and sufferign, but derives a sense of beauty from it. This is a graphic journey that can rouse the most apathetic.
A rebellious yet thoughtful restlessness dictates the flow of the music according to the focus of each song - the emotion and dynamic of each passage - subjecting it to constant change.
Melodies bounce off subordinate riffs that shape the eclectic yet logical structure of each song, varying in strength of tone and rhythm to highlight the melodic phrasing with greater emotional depth.

This interaction between guitars is very free and expressive, yet still tightly bound as the percussion and bass support the general mood and motion of the riffs.

Previously, this slow-witted listener found himself lost within a perpetual change of riffs that seemed incoherent and disparate, but patience revealed that the more experimental edge that pervades this album underscores every change of riff, tone and tempo with the emotional unease that finally made it such a poignant work.

At the same time, it's a death metal album that sounds the closest to classical music yet, and it is to the great credit of the artists that they seem to have left no combination unexplored in the persuit of an atmosphere that immerses the listener in the richness of their poetry.

Oh my this is fragmented - 15%

UltraBoris, May 21st, 2003

This really sums up the modern metal ethic of "so many ideas, so little time". There is hardly any room for coherent riffage when one throws in a billion drum passages and a thousand mood changes without letting any of them really sink in. Add to that the fact that the album is fundamentally BORING, and we have some major problems.

Just listen to the first song - Beyond Good and Evil... there is one basic death-metal riff to start things off, and under that, the drummer can't really decide what he is doing, but it ends up distracting from the music. Then, around 0.37 there is a different riff, which also just lacks catchiness and any sense of groove - it's too hard to headbang when half the notes seem to be out of time.

The rest... for the most part that sums it up - Raped by the Light has some okay groove riffs, except then there is the annoying habit of the main guitar to cut out and then only the left-channel guitar to continue - very disconcerting. The album has lots of silly stop-breaks like that. Stop, then continue. The Break of Autumn has just about the only memorable riff of the album, and it sounds like a Pantera reject riff... it occurs around 2.36 and stays for about 11 seconds before disintegrating in a flurry of misplaced drum hits.

For the most part, it sounds like they're playing the same riff a lot of the time - it's some high-pitched fast riffing that lacks a solid headbanging basis. It sounds more like a bit of a solo picked out and repeated, and not an actual riff. Tony Iommi is not pleased.

Star Drowned has a decent intro, though the guitars sound slightly out of sync, and the problem is heightened when the drums come in. Then the song disintegrates completely into the same old crap as before.

It's hard to describe what this album is... imagine one basic death-metal riff, pitch-shifted up an octave, given about 80 trivial permutations, and then scattered about for 40 minutes. That's the guitar characteristic of the album. Then throw in some over-prominent drumming, some annoying distorted vocals at times, and in general this doesn't hold my attention for longer than 3 seconds at a time. When they very rarely catch on to a decent idea, they immediately let it go. It's fascinating, how the album macroscopically sounds the same over 40 minutes, but there isn't 15 consecutive seconds that follow any discernable pattern.

Oh yeah, throw in just about the worst guitar tone ever - very weak, again as I said it sounds pitch-shifted. No memorable riffs. Man this makes In Flames sound brilliant, and that's saying much.