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In Thy Dreams > The Gate of Pleasure > Reviews
In Thy Dreams - The Gate of Pleasure

Happy to spend some time At THESE Gates - 73%

autothrall, January 30th, 2023
Written based on this version: 1999, CD, War Music

The Gate of Pleasure is hardly one of the more memorable melodic death metal efforts of the later 90s, but it certainly slaps the band's prior effort hard in the face and lets it know who its daddy is. This is much more savage and dense than its predecessor, and takes ever so slightly more of a risk. By this time, bands entering this niche had to walk either of two roads to make a dent: dial up the extremity, or dial up the melody, and I think when compared to Stream of Dispraised Souls, this one chose the former, not that there isn't a lot of intrinsic melody, rhythm guitars popping off into the usual patterns you'd expect from those in the footsteps of Dark Tranquillity, In Flames and At the Gates, but they don't go out of their way to be 'pretty' on this release, it's much more tuned in to the aggression of the style.

And that is both its strength, and maybe a little of its weakness, as most of the nine tracks and 32 minutes here flow together so tightly that I'd have a hard time picking any individual tunes out of the lineup. They make an interesting use of a guest violin in the opener "Into Infinity" and "Probing Insanity", but I almost wish they would have used it throughout the entirety because it creates a fairly delicious contrast, bringing in a little classical flair to the punishing proceedings. The rhythm guitars are quite solid, the drum battery is claustrophobic and intense, and this one hits a lot with the low end below Jonas Nyrén's rasp, which to be honest, is pretty standard for the Tomas Lindberg style, although this guy splatters it wherever it needs to be to keep the material sounding as dangerous as its going to get. There are a few breakdowns here or there, but they generally keep this stuff fast and frenzied and not just a little angry, but I do feel it lacks a little something...more leadwork, or atmospheric melodies flailing off the top, or more of the use of the violin while they had the guy available.

Even without that, though, The Gate of Pleasure is a passable mid-level effort which kept the band alive in a snowballing scene that had arguably just hit its apex, or was about to, before teetering off across the following decade. The issue, besides the sameness of the material, is that bands like Darkane and Soilwork had arrived with very impressive debut albums, characterized by much stronger songwriting that I frankly think could rival those 'big three' of the Swedish melodeath scene, and a couple other second-stringers like Sins of Omission were also delivering material that was just more memorable, but if you are a diehard for this strain of death and/or thrash metal then The Gate of Pleasure is intense enough to engage you for a short while.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Not Bad but Too Monotonous - 77%

CHRISTI_NS_ANITY8, July 24th, 2008

Once again we face another group from Sweden that follows more or less the same direction of bands like Unanimated, The Duskfall, Gates of Ishtar and so on. The At The Gates influences are always pretty persistent and evident and it’s obvious, because a band like that played an important role for the naissance of the newest realities in the death metal field.

So, expect a truly violent and pounding album for the drums and a more melodic and sad one if we talk about the lead guitars lines. These are the most important characteristics of the Swedish sound and this debut album by In Thy Dreams, “The Gates of Pleasures” incorporates everything in this field. The vocals are always pissed off and quite shrieky but not excessively. The tempo of these songs is always quite fast and there are some blast beats too like in the opener.

What I immediately noticed is the use of some almost folk keyboards parts in some sectors and this is an interesting thing. They add something to a quite good sound, yes, but also so abused. These parts are not so frequent and they are not spread all around the album. When you meet them it’s a pleasant surprise to break a bit the impact of these songs. Anyway, the guitars work is always quite various and the good mix of fast palm muting parts to tremolo picking is a way to make the sound less monolithic and full of a sad feeling.

Anyway, it’s my belief that this band is more pissed off than groups like Divine Souls or Gates of Ishtar. Yes, the sad melody is always quite rooted in the guitars but the tempo and the frenetic riffage is somehow more bound to the old school death metal in Sweden and the use of some growls too increases in me this idea. Going on anyway, I noticed that there are no particular stand out songs and the whole album sounds a bit too conventional and “in one way”. The production is great, the charge of this band is enormous as their technique in the various guitars duets, but something is missing.

The only song that differs a bit is “Probing Insanity” with the violin intro that soon is erased by the death metal fury, reaching the end in the blast beats of the final title track. As I said before, sometimes the technique is not everything (not only sometimes to me…) and the songwriting in this album is not so inspired. The songs are too similar and the refrains are almost unrecognizable. It’s a pity because this band was very good at their instruments but I believe that they had to choose a more personal way of playing death metal or, at least, being more inspired.

Not a bad album but too similar and monotonous.