At The Gates - Slaughter Of The Soul

At the Gates was a melodic death metal band from Gothenburg, Sweden, and a major progenitor of the Gothenburg death metal sound. Initially active from 1990 to 1996, the band reformed in 2007 for a reunion tour. At the Gates consist of Tomas Lindberg − vocals; Anders Björler − guitar, drums; Jonas Björler − bass guitar; Adrian Erlandsson − drums and Martin Larsson − guitar

In 1995 released their most commercially and critically successful album, Slaughter of the Soul, this one was released on the major metal label Earache Records. This album made a huge stamp in the history books of one of the leaders of the Swedish metal scene. The band got some international success and went out on tour in the U.S and after this tour and some festival gigs in Sweden the Björler brothers departed in 1996 and the remaining members decided that they never would be able to continue with out them and the band broke up.



On October 18, 2007, At the Gates announced several reunion shows for mid-2008, including Getafe Electric Festival, Roskilde Festival, Ruisrock, Wacken Open Air, Graspop Metal Meeting, Sweden Rock Festival, Gods of Metal, Hellfest Summer Open Air, Castle Festival, and Bloodstock Open Air, as well as a tour of Japan with The Dillinger Escape Plan, Into Eternity, Pig Destroyer, and Mayhem in May 2008. Throughout July 2008, they toured the US and Canada on what was dubbed the "Suicidal Final Tour", and played their final UK show at Bloodstock Open Air on Sunday on 17 August 2008. Some gigs in Gothenburg and Stockholm in September and they finished their last show in Athens, Greece on 21 September, 2008.



Today i was at one of the 2 Swedish dates at the Cinema for the screenings of "Under A Serpent Sun" documentary. It was really a great mix of history, footage, music and some great stories during the years and of course the reunion trip. A nice little anecdote that wasn't told in the video was during the last shows in Stockholm, they did 2 sold out shows were both Thetania and me was working at. Thetania was working as a Security during this show and after the first night when she was standing in the ditch right under "Tompa" (you who has seen him in action can guess that he head-bangs and sweat alot.) it was like it was pouring rain (Sweat and bear) so next night she asked if i could do the last songs as she didn't want to get soaked again :) oh well, ok i said yes. I had payed attention the night before so i knew that this should occur so i prepared myself with an umbrella :) when the last tunes was going on i shifted place with Thetania and waited for the moment when "Tompa" did his water pouring thing and was going to start his head-bang, when the moment came i folded out the umbrealla and "Tompa" notice it and started to laugh in the middle of his lyrics but as a "old man in the house" he manage to get back in line again and after the show we had a big laugh about it...and yes i got ok from "Tompas" wife to do it :) The documentary will be able on the new DVD release.

Todays tune is the title track from the 4th album "Slaughter of the Soul" and this clip is taken from the At The Gates 2008 Wacken Open Air festival appearance. The full show is due for release as part of the 3 DVD set titled "The Flames of the End" Enjoy!



At The Gates - The Flames of the End DVD Trailer



At the Gates were nominated for the Swedish Grammy Awards for Slaughter of the Soul in 1995 along with Fireside's Do Not Tailgate, Meshuggah's Destroy Erase Improve, and Yngwie Malmsteen's Magnum Opus.

"The Flames of the End"

RELEASED: 22nd February - UK/Europe and 6th April - USA

* Lavish, extensive, in-depth official DVD release by melodic Death Metal legends At the Gates
* 3 DVD's containing over 40 live songs, a 2 hour + documentary and crammed
full of extra scenes and unreleased footage
* Housed in a deluxe 6 panel DVD size digipak with 40 page colour booklet

* Disc 1 'Under A Serpent Sun - The Story of At the Gates' - over 2 hours of brand new documentary detailing the band's entire career with exclusive interviews and footage, filmed and directed by guitarist Anders Bjorler

* Disc 2 'Purgatory Unleashed - Live at Wacken' - a 75 minute live set from the band's reunion set at the Wacken Festival in 2008 in front of 100.000 people

* Disc 3 'Only the Dead Are Smiling' - 26 rare and archive live performances of the band playing in locations around the globe from 1991 - 2008.



More info:
Official At the Gates Website or At the Gates at MySpace

Listen to "At The Gates - Slaughter Of The Soul" on Spotify

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Here is an older post with At The Gates