Death is June -Looking Back in Anger at At the Gates' "Slaughter of the Soul"

Among the cool kids of the metal scene this album has been held in high regard. It is a high water mark in terms of the Swedish death metal sound. Though the opener is equal parts thrash and death metal. How does this album stack up among their peers. This album came out in 1995 so a decade behind the first wave of death metal .  The shout of go before the title track explodes would ignite any pit for sure. Without question the title track is a great song. Have many bands that came after them drawn inspiration from what is going on here ? Yes. Does this hold it's own against classics like "Blessed Are the Sick". This is a more accesible beast than early Morbid Angel. I can also hear where kids that might have gotten in hard core or punk, might find this album a good entry point to European metal. 'Cold" really doesn't set it'self apart from the pack as much as  the title track. There is a melodic section and a cool riff preceeding it, but the rule here is "cool riffs alone does not a good song make" .

The one dimensional nature of what they do begins to click into place on " Under the Serpent Sun" . Lyrically it's a bunch of heavy metal nonsense metaphors. There are some melodic nuance, but not enough to really draw me in. Yeah , I have heard this album before, and never really paid a great deal of attention to it. They are mean and fast, but for some reason it does not strike me as all that dark. There is more grit to "Suicide Nation". It is odd that this is their fourth album that is held in such high regard when it is normally the band's first that get's this kind of fanfare. They race pretty furiously through "World of Lies". "Unto Others" is another high speed riff chase that offers a little more dynamic shift, but not much in terms of melody. The speed blasting chug fest continues on "Nausea". By this time I am beginning to get a little bored.

I guess if I was doing coke and just wanted to head bang the single minded aggression this album devolves into might be my cup of bloody tea. If you are a guitar player, then "Need" might be fun to play along with. The guitar tones on this album are also pretty impressive if you are looking to emmulate a mean spirited metal guitar sound. But song wise. It is just more of the same. I will give this one a 8.5. Is it a really good album , yeah for the most part. Is it a classic that rubs shoulders with the best ever , not so much.