Slaughter of the Soul

Slaughter of the Soul is the fourth studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band At the Gates, released on 14 November 1995 by Earache Records. It was their last album before their eleven-year breakup from 1996 to 2007. Slaughter of the Soul is considered a landmark in melodic death metal and played a major role in popularizing the Gothenburg scene, alongside The Jester Race by In Flames and The Gallery by Dark Tranquillity.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The album was recorded and mixed in Studio Fredman, early 1995.

Music journalist T Coles described the album's sound as "melodic and weird", saying that At the Gates were "cleaner" than fellow Swedish death metal band Entombed, yet "dirtier" than the technical death metal bands of the United States.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Andy LaRocque's neo-classical guest solo on "Cold" was widely acclaimed as one of the greatest metal solosTemplate:Citation needed and guitarist Anders Björler admitted in 2007 that he still could not play it properly.<ref name="Lucem Fero">Template:Cite web</ref>

"Blinded by Fear" was covered by The Haunted (composed largely of ex-At the Gates members) on the Japanese version of their live/double disc album Live Rounds in Tokyo, and was also covered by Fleshgod Apocalypse on their Mafia EP. The song also appeared in the game Rock Band 2 as downloadable content.

Style

According to Vlad Nichols of Ultimate Guitar, At the Gates "officiated the birth of the characteristic Gothenburg sound" with Slaughter of the Soul.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Appearances in media

Tracks from the album have made appearances in several video games.

• "Blinded by Fear" was made available as downloadable content for the Rock Band video game series on March 28, 2008. Later, it was included in the game's retail "Metal Track Pack" add-on content disc, released on September 22, 2009 in North America. The song is considered one of the most difficult songs in the series to perform on drums, due to its fast tempo.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• The title track is featured in both Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned and Tony Hawk's Proving Ground.

Reissues

A 2002 reissue contained 11 tracks from the original 1995 release of Slaughter of the Soul, plus six bonus audio tracks. Three of the bonus tracks were covers, two were demos, and one was a previously unreleased track recorded during the Slaughter of the Soul sessions. The 2006 reissue contained everything from the 2002 reissue, plus a bonus DVD featuring a 35-minute behind-the-scenes documentary. The 2008 reissue contains everything from the 2002 and 2006 rereleases (all audio and DVD material), as well as additional DVD footage of an eight-song live set, recorded in Kraków, Poland on December 30, 1995.

Reception

Critical reception

Reviews for Slaughter of the Soul have been highly positive, acclaiming the album as a landmark in the development of the Swedish death metal scene. AllMusic's Steve Huey awarded the album five stars and called it an "excellent example of Gothenburg-style melodic death metal, and certainly the band's best and most focused album to date."<ref name="AM review"/> Rock Hard, however, thought the band had become interchangeable with its many clones,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Deathmetal.org labeled it At the Gates' sellout album, sounding like "Metallica attempting ...And Justice For All in a stylistic mashup between Iron Maiden and Judas Priest during Painkiller."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Accolades

In 2005, the album was ranked number 300 in Rock Hard magazine's book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Metal Injection ranked Slaughter of the Soul eighth on their list "Top 10 Influential Heavy Metal Albums".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The album was inducted into the Decibel Magazine Hall of Fame in March 2005, being the second album overall to receive such award.<ref name="dB HoF">Template:Cite web</ref> In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked Slaughter of the Soul as 79th on their list of "The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The same magazine later ranked the title track number eighty-seven on their list of "The 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs of All Time"<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Personnel

Writing, performance and production credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.<ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref>

At the Gates

• Tomas Lindberg − vocals
• Anders Björler − guitar, phaser drums on "Into the Dead Sky"
• Martin Larsson − guitar
• Jonas Björler − bass
• Adrian Erlandsson − drums

Additional personnel

• Andy LaRocque − guitar solo on "Cold"

Production

• Fredrik Nordström − production
• At the Gates – co-production
• Noel Summerville − mastering
• Kristian Wåhlin − artwork, logo
• Absolute Design Associates – additional artwork and layout
• Frequent Form – logo concept
• Studio Fredman, Gothenburg, Sweden – recording, mixing
• Transfermation – mastering

Charts

Template:Album chart

Chart	Peak position

External links

• Template:AllMusic
• Slaughter of the Soul at At the Gates's official website
• Slaughter of the Soul at Earache Records