At The Gates Album: “Red in the Sky Is Ours”

Everybody always raves about Slaughter of the Soul, and I guess I can see why, as I was one of those people.... but ATG's first 2 albums, once you let them sink in, are easily ATG's best 2 albums, and not only that but they are 2 of the greatest metal albums of all time. I didn't like this too much upon first listen, and while I love Slaughter of the Soul, I never considered ATG one of my favorite bands. "The Red In The Sky Is Ours" and "With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness" changed that. "The Red In The Sky Is Ours" is certainly ATG's most technical, twisted, and brutal album, but still has loads of excellently used melody and it never falls into "wankery" (bands trying to make music as complex as possible, but sacrifice SONGWRITING and end up making garbage) as it seemed to me upon first listen.

The majority of this album is based on 2 guitars weaving in and out of each other in brilliant fashion. Riffs range from melodic tremolo picking to energetic and "exciting" riffs to very odd and twisted riffs that make you go "???".... The guitar interplay is so deep on this album, there is so much to hear and will have you coming back again and again. The production is very raw and leaves the guitars very thin, but whats important is that they are clear and the production is adequate for an album which requires clarity in each guitar note. Song structures are complex and will be a challenge for the listener early on, but once they begin to settle in the music is all the more rewarding for this.... The arrangements seem so clever and limitless in comparison to the verse-chorus-verse structure of SOTS, as this makes for an unpredictable album where anything goes. Not that there's anything wrong with verse-chorus structuring, but in the end it just seems that the most satisfying music is the more adventurous music. And The Red In The Sky Is Ours is one adventurous disc. Put it on, you will be pummeled immediately by the brutal title track.... So you know what you are in for, and the rest of the album is one hell of a ride.

Favorite tracks: Within, Claws Of Laughter Dead, Neverwhere, City of Screaming Statues

Though At the Gates would eventually gain their fame watering down and mainstreaming death metal, a mere three years early they were at the vanguard of progressively-minded bands bent on expanding the boundaries of the genre. While their countrymen Entombed, Dismember and Unleashed emphasized a brute, relatively simplistic beatdown, AtG's debut "The Red in the Sky is Ours" is a lithe, sophisticated and melodic piece of technically-adept death metal that suggests the Florida prog-death scene far more than the buzzsaw sounds of Sweden. While critics will invariably describe "Red" as "immature," others will say AtG possessed a skill and ambition beyond either their individual ages or that of the youthful genre. Innovative though it is "Red" is not an album that was ahead of its time, but rather one that predicted an alternate future, where "melodic death metal" meant sophisticated DM with a strong melodic element, rather than the power-thrash with growled vocals that dominated the Gothenburg scene in the late 90s. It's a tragedy that both AtG and the subgenre as a whole took a different path (which isn't to say that all or even most melodeath is bad), but with "Red" we have a glimpse into what might've been, and a terrific, immensely enjoyable album.

Though many have complained about the production, the relatively distant, bass-light sound allows the elaborate guitarwork to shine through in one of the finest dual guitar performances in all of death metal. Svensson and Bjorler display a remarkably intuitive interplay, moving from lockstep riffing to simple harmonies to elaborate counterpoint and back with astonishing ease. Varied though they can be, the duo are quite adept a pure riff monsters, as in the title track and "Night Comes, Blood Black" the ferocious bookends of the original material. While their work is not as overtly technical as much later, conventional tech-death, their material is sufficiently elaborate and precise for most guitar geeks, and they display a melodic sense unparalleled in later tech death. (See the gorgeous harmonies and melodies of "Windows" and "Through Gardens of Grief" and other tracks, with an assist to Jesper's surprising but always effective violin.) The rhythm section is less well represented, particularly the largely inaudible bass, but Erlandsson's drums add rhythmic punch to the album, and they all ably navigate the complicated rhythms. (See "Night Comes, Blood Black" for probably the toughest, shiftiest rhythms on the album.)

Individually strong performances don't mean much unless the pieces build to something larger, and here AtG consistently succeed once again. "Red" is a remarkably consistent release for a debut, and even the weaker tracks ("Claws of Laughter Dead" and "Within") are more than worth the listener's time. Most significantly, AtG find that rare balance between technicality and memorability that makes the tracks rewarding both immediately and on careful listen. All this culminates in some truly masterful compositions, particularly the explosively dynamic and melodic "Neverwhere" (the album's masterpiece) and "Kingdom Gone," both of which throw a few nice vocal hooks into the mix. (Moreover, AtG briefly step out of the DM norm with the remarkably beautiful interlude "The Scar," a rare example of the brief interlude that is absolutely worth listening to.)

All in all, "The Red in the Sky is Ours" is one of the most underappreciated death metal albums ever recorded. Melodeath fans may not care for the album's oft inscrutable nature, while tech-heads may well have written off AtG as an enjoyable but hardly remarkable band after hearing "Slaughter of the Soul." Don't make this mistake, or you'll be missing one of the most unique and enjoyable tech-death albums around.

One of the fist melodic Death Metal bands, At The Gates maintained chaos within the melodic pieces. I have not heard any Death Metal vocalist sound quite like At The Gates, and they had a great drummer. Kingdom Gone, Within, and City of Screaming Statues really stands out here. This was one of the first albums I bought when starting out in the extreme metal scene. It is really sad that this band only put out four full length albums. Highly recommended to the melodic Death Metal listener.

At The Gates is a highly influential band that's basically looked up to by 80% of melodic metal bands nowadays. However, there is more to this band than just "Slaughter Of The Soul". And this will be an insight to their very first full-length, "The Red In The Sky Is Ours".

Released in 1992, this was when At The Gates were a different band from a few years following after. This CD is more dark, technical and brutal than the rest of their works. They laced more death metal into their sound at this time. The CD has insane riffs and melodic leads, and the tempos really make it stand out. Drums are excellent here, especially in "The Red In The Sky Is Ours". It is a real blistering album that deserves to be heard and not to be missed.

Not their best by any means. As far as I am concerned the only record these guys made that matters is SotS. Of course the fanboys and tweenies are going to disagree because everything these guys did is a masterpiece but if you are not really into this stuff you might as well sample Slaughter and move on. The production on this is laughable and the vocals are pretty bad and sound more like something out of CCorpse. Way different than the next three records. That is one thing I cannot pin down here. He changes his vocal style on every record and the 4th is the only one where he is even remotely acceptable to me. I understand budget gets in the way though. Guitars are just not really even in the mix at times and the drumming is just a bunch of bumps. Compared to something like Nile or Meshuggah this stuff sounds pedestrian on the popular DM front. Not saying it is the worst or criticizing the bands ideals this is just another in a long line of weakly produced samey sounding records.