Slaughter of the Soul
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| At the Gates studio album | ||||
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| Label (s) | Earache Records | |||
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Title (number) |
11 |
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running time |
34 min 16 s |
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Slaughter of the Soul ( ger .: , slaughter of the soul 'or free, souls Slaughter') is the fourth album by the Swedish melodic death metal band At the Gates . The album was released on November 14, 1995 via Earache Records and is considered the reference album of Melodic Death Metal.
Emergence
After the previous album Terminal Spirit Disease, the record contract between the band and Peaceville Records ran out. In the spring of 1995, the band recorded a demo with which the band applied to various music labels . The band's preferred candidate was the German label Nuclear Blast , but they rejected it. Eventually the band signed with the British label Earache Records .
The album was recorded between May and July 1995 in the Fredman studio in Gothenburg . The album was produced and mixed by Frederik Nordström. The band acted as co-producers. Slaughter of the Soul was mastered by Noel Summerville in the Transformation Studio. The cover artwork was designed by Kristian Wåhlin . All texts were written by Tomas Lindberg . About 60 percent of the music comes from Anders and 30 percent from Jonas Björler.
Andy LaRocque ( King Diamond ) contributed a guitar solo for the song Cold . The sound at the beginning of the song Blinded by Fear is a pot lid that has fallen down and spun on the floor. The noise is from Gothenburg hip-hop - and Techno - DJ Charlie pitched deep Service. The sound of the reloading pistol comes from the movie Reservoir Dogs . Anders Björler originally wrote the final instrumental, The Flames of the End , for a horror film he made . It's the only at-the-gates song that used keyboards .
For the song Blinded by Fear one was music video rotated.
background
Blinded by Fear was the last song the band wrote together. The theme song was inspired by Luke Rhinehart 's book Der Würfler . The text by Under a Serpent Sun describes Anders Björler's vision of positive Satanism , which combines the ideas of Aleister Crowley with humanism . Unto Others is directed against organized religion . The text of nausea contains excerpts from the autobiographical Charles Bukowski - Roman The worst is yet or fast a youth .
reception
Slaughter of the Soul is counted among the best and most groundbreaking albums in Melodic Death Metal . Alex Straka from the online magazine Powermetal.de called the album a " blueprint for all upcoming Swedish death metal bands". At the Swedish Grammis Music Award , Slaughter of the Soul was nominated in the hard rock category, but the award went to the band Fireside .
In the book Best of Rock & Metal - The 500 strongest discs of all time by the German rock-hard magazine, the 300th place. Ironically, when the album was released, the album received a rating of seven out of ten, only slightly above average. The then reviewer Kai Wendel accused the band of sounding “interchangeable and faceless”. The German magazine Visions led Slaughter of the Soul on its published 2019 list of Swedish 55 best rock albums.
Track list
- Blinded by Fear - 3:12
- Slaughter of the Soul - 3:02
- Cold - 3:27
- Under a Serpent Sun - 3:58
- Into the Dead Sky - 2:12
- Suicide Nation - 3:35
- World of Lies - 3:35
- Unto Others - 3:11
- Nausea - 2:23
- Need - 2:36
- The Flames of the End - 2:57
Republication
2002
On July 17, 2002, the album was re-released for the first time. In contrast to the original, the artwork has been slightly revised. Tomas Lindberg gives short comments on each song in the booklet , but Anders Björler's signature can be found on the back of the cover. In addition to the eleven titles of the original version, the re-release contains six other songs. The Dying was created during the recording of the album in the summer of 1995, but was not used because At the Gates wanted an album "without fillers". The songs Unto Others and Suicide Nation were already on the demo that brought the band the record deal with Earache Records, but were recorded again in the final version and a little more melodic. Bister Verklighet is a cover version of the Swedish hardcore band No Security, which was originally recorded for fun in the recording studio during the recording of Slaughter of the Soul . It is also the only At-the-Gates track ever sung in Swedish . The Slayer cover Captor of Sin was recorded for the Slatanic Slaughter compilation. The Slaughter Lord title Legion is also featured on the CD .
The re-release includes the following songs as bonus material:
- Legion - 3:54 (Slaughter Lord cover version)
- The Dying - 3:18
- Captor of Sin - 3:19 (Slayer cover)
- Unto Others - 3:06 ('95 Demo)
- Suicide Nation - 3:22 ('95 demo)
- Bister Verklighet - 1:55 (No-Security-Cover)
2008
On the occasion of the reunification of the band, the album will be re-released. This time the album is accompanied by a bonus DVD , which contains a documentary about the creation of the album and a concert on November 30, 1995 recorded in the Polish city of Krakow . The release is planned for March 30, 2008.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Alex Straka: AT THE GATES - Slaughter Of The Soul , March 17, 2005, accessed March 22, 2013.
- ↑ 1996. grammis.se, accessed on October 3, 2018 (se).
- ↑ Kai Wendel: At The Gates . Slaughter Of The Soul . In: Rock Hard , No. 101, accessed October 21, 2018.
- ↑ various authors: export world champion . In: Visions , issue 312, page 50