Slaughter of the Soul

Slaughter of the Soul
Studio album by
At the Gates
Released14 November 1995 (1995-11-14)
RecordedMay–July 1995
StudioStudio Fredman, Gothenburg, Sweden
GenreMelodic death metal
Length34:10
LabelEarache
ProducerFredrik Nordström
At the Gates chronology
Terminal Spirit Disease
(1994) 		Slaughter of the Soul
(1995) 		At War with Reality
(2014)

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, particularly the scene in Gothenburg.[1]

Recording

The album was recorded with Fredrik Nordström at Studio Fredman in 1995. At The Gates asked Nordström to buy a 24-track mixing desk because they felt the album was a watershed, which caused some tension. They spent 3 weeks getting their rhythm guitar tone and 3 days recording the vocals. The band also contacted Andy LaRocque for a guest solo on "Cold",[2] which guitarist Anders Björler admitted he still could not play properly in 2007.[3]

Reception

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
About.com[4]
AllMusic[1]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal8/10[5]
Rock Hard7/10[6]

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."[1] According to Vlad Nichols of Ultimate Guitar, At the Gates "officiated the birth of the characteristic Gothenburg sound" with Slaughter of the Soul.[7] 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.[8] 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.[9]

Rock Hard, however, thought the band had become interchangeable with its many clones,[10] 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."[11]

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.[12] Metal Injection ranked Slaughter of the Soul eighth on their list "Top 10 Influential Heavy Metal Albums".[13] The album was inducted into the Decibel Magazine Hall of Fame in March 2005, being the second album overall to receive such award.[14] In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked Slaughter of the Soul as 79th on their list of "The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time".[15] The same magazine later ranked the title track number eighty-seven on their list of "The 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs of All Time"[16]

Appearances

  • "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.[17]

Covers

"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.[18]

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.

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Lindberg; all music is composed by A. Björler and J. Björler, except where noted.

No.TitleMusicLength
1."Blinded by Fear"A. Björler3:12
2."Slaughter of the Soul" 3:02
3."Cold" 3:27
4."Under a Serpent Sun"A. Björler4:00
5."Into the Dead Sky" (instrumental) 2:12
6."Suicide Nation"A. Björler3:35
7."World of Lies"A. Björler, J. Björler, Larsson3:35
8."Unto Others" 3:11
9."Nausea"A. Björler2:23
10."Need" 2:36
11."The Flames of the End" (instrumental)A. Björler, Johansson, Lindberg2:57
Total length:34:10
2002 reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
12."Legion" (Slaughter Lord cover) 3:54
13."The Dying" (Unreleased track from Slaughter of the Soul sessions) 3:18
14."Captor of Sin" (Slayer cover)Hanneman, King3:19
15."Unto Others" ('95 Demo) 3:06
16."Suicide Nation" ('95 Demo) 3:22
17."Bister Verklighet" (No Security cover) 1:55
2006 reissue bonus DVD
No.TitleLength
1."Making of Slaughter of the Soul" 
2."Deleted Scenes" 
3."Blinded by Fear" (music video) 
2008 reissue bonus DVD
No.TitleLength
1."Terminal Spirit Disease" (live in Kraków, Poland) 
2."Cold" (live in Kraków, Poland) 
3."The Swarm" (live in Kraków, Poland) 
4."Blinded by Fear" (live in Kraków, Poland) 
5."Nausea" (live in Kraków, Poland) 
6."Forever Blind" (live in Kraków, Poland) 
7."Need" (live in Kraków, Poland) 
8."Kingdom Gone" (live in Kraków, Poland) 
9."Making of Slaughter of the Soul" 
10."Deleted Scenes" 
11."Blinded by Fear" (music video) 

Personnel

Writing, performance and production credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[19]

At the Gates
Additional personnel
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

Chart Peak
position
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[20] 200

References

  1. ^ a b c Huey, Steve. Slaughter of the Soul - At the Gates at AllMusic
  2. ^ Dome, Malcolm (16 September 2025). ""There were loads of bands happy to make mediocre records. We never saw this as an option." The story of At The Gates' Slaughter Of The Soul - the album that revolutionised death metal". Louder. Archived from the original on 11 October 2025. Retrieved 21 February 2026.
  3. ^ Morgan, Anthony. ""The Flames of the End"? - Guitarist Anders Björler wishes to pen the final chapter in the glorious history of Swedish legends At The Gates". Lucem Fero. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  4. ^ "At The Gates - Slaughter Of The Soul Review". About.com. 14 September 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
  5. ^ Popoff, Martin (2007). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 3: The Nineties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 35. ISBN 978-1-894959-62-9.
  6. ^ Wendel, Kai. "REVIEWALBUM". Rock Hard (in German) (RH #101). Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  7. ^ "Top 9 Seminal Melodic Death Metal Albums". www.ultimate-guitar.com. Retrieved 24 March 2025.
  8. ^ "Melodic Death Metal". About.com. 2 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
  9. ^ Coles, T (2022). Death Metal. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 78.
  10. ^ "AT THE GATES - Slaughter Of The Soul". ROCK HARD Heavy-Metal-Magazin. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
  11. ^ "At the Gates - Slaughter of the Soul (Death Metal)". www.deathmetal.org. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
  12. ^ Best of Rock & Metal - Die 500 stärksten Scheiben aller Zeiten (in German). Rock Hard. 2005. p. 92. ISBN 3-89880-517-4.
  13. ^ Staff writer(s) (6 March 2013). "8. AT THE GATES Slaughter of the Soul - Top 10 Influential Heavy Metal Albums". www.metalinjection.net. Metal Injection. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  14. ^ Chase, Jesse (March 2005). "At the Gates – "Slaughter of the Soul"". Decibel. Retrieved 11 May 2018.
  15. ^ "Rolling Stone Share Their Choices For 'The 100 Greatest Metal Albums Of All Time'". Theprp.com. 21 June 2017.
  16. ^ "The 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. 13 March 2023. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  17. ^ "'Blinded By Fear' - At the Gates // Rock Band". Rockband.com. Archived from the original on 3 March 2009. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
  18. ^ "Blinded by Fear by Fleshgod Apocalypse on WhoSampled". WhoSampled. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  19. ^ Slaughter of the Soul (Reissue) (liner notes). At the Gates. Earache Records. 2008.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  20. ^ "スローター・オブ・ザ・ソウル - アット・ザ・ゲイツ". Retrieved 18 October 2015.
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