At the Gates
Terminal Spirit Disease
[Peaceville]


Well, it's 2002 and I can't believe nobody has reviewed this yet, so here goes. This release, unless I'm mistaken, comes directly before the infamous Slaughter of the Soul in these Swedes' discography and is thus not TOO dissimilar from that album. In other words, it is smooth and coherent, not angular and unpredictable like The Red in the Sky is Ours. (Amazing how these guys could pull off so sweetly two almost polar opposite approaches to song writing. They will be greatly missed but I imagine they would have inevitably started releasing shit sooner or later.... it happens.)

That being said, it is not quite as heavy or fast as SotS but possesses, in a few songs, a melancholic and quite depressing atmosphere not really found in the latter work. There is a beautiful acoustic piece and some live tracks from the previous three releases that seem solid enough. Clocks in at a little over half an hour, so there's not too much in the way of new material, but if you love SotS, as many many people do, this is definitely worth picking up. Again, some of the songs on here are really depressing and have really downtrodden lyrics full of despair at the plight of wretched humanity and/or one's own tortured soul. So pick this up. It's solid, tight, and melancholic with great song writing. Gothenburg death metal, yes, but from the founders of that sound, so you know it's not crap.

It is quite a shame that they have disbanded. I saw them live with Dissection and Morbid Angel and they blew everyone away by far (especially cock stars MA); one of the best live metal shows I've ever seen with one of the most impressive fan bases ever (everyone knew EVERY word to EVERY song). At least they quit while they were ahead.


© 2002 the insider