At the Gates Songs Ranked

At the Gates is a Swedish death metal band from Gothenburg, formed in 1990. The band was a major progenitor of Gothenburg-style melodic death metal. Prior to their first disbandment in 1996, At the Gates released four albums, ending with and including Slaughter of the Soul (1995), which has been seen as a landmark in the mid-1990s Swedish death metal scene. After reuniting for a one-off tour in 2008, the band reformed once again in 2011, and they have since released three more albums: At War with Reality (2014), To Drink from the Night Itself (2018), and The Nightmare of Being (2021). Here are all of At the Gates songs ranked.

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10. Forever Blind (Terminal Spirit Disease, 1994)

“I feel like all of their albums have a lyrical theme which connects every song on the album and I really like that, for example Terminal Spirit Disease has depression, Slaughter Of The Soul has suicide, At War With Reality has…well, reality of course.”

9. The Circular Ruins (At War with Reality, 2014)

“The Circular Ruins is a very successful (perhaps the best of the record) ride in no uncertain terms, an excellent declination of the Swedish sound twenty years after the glories.”

8. And the World Returned (Terminal Spirit Disease, 1994)

“And the World Returned is a nice acoustic instrumental to break things up and the remaining three studio tracks are all great if not quite up to the standard that of the earlier part of the album set.”

7. Kingdom Gone (The Red in the Sky Is Ours, 1992)

“Raw and much less melodic than later, more famous, stuff. It’s kind of the bridge between old style death metal and the scandanavian melodic stuff. I find the production horribly poor and a somewhat misplaced violin kind of irrelevent. Listen to the new stuff before braving this one.”

See more: At the Gates Albums Ranked

6. Heroes and Tombs (At War with Reality, 2014)

“Heroes And Tombs” continues this “more melodic” approach, what with its few pockets of nicely acoustic guitar arrangements, and exotically jazzy solo section. For the most part, though, this is a brutal album centerpiece, and one propelled by a deep, stomach-churning groove, and big, fat, meaty, chugging riffs.”

5. Unto Others (Slaughter of the Soul, 1995)

“Unto Others” is a particularly attention-grabbing, memorable, and infectious song, because it includes a somewhat pretty flamenco guitar interlude.

4. Slaughter of the Soul (Slaughter of the Soul, 1995)

“The title song wastes little time in working up another violently thrashing groove, one that is tattooed by crunchy, blowtorch riffing and pounding percussion, and topped off by viscerally screamed vocals. A heavy, grumbling, underlying bass line also finds its way into the equation, here, and the lead guitarist (Bjorler) gets some time in the spotlight, too, by ripping out an exotically melodic and even mildly jazzy-sounding solo section.”

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3. Under a Serpent Sun (Slaughter of the Soul, 1995)

“This is an absolutely brutal death metal masterpiece. The songs on this release paved the way for a whole revolution in the swedish death metal world, and it’s easy to see why as this album proves to be a very fast and malevolent work of art.”

2. Blinded by Fear (Slaughter of the Soul, 1995)

“Blinded by Fear” is as wonderful an opening track as you can ask of this album. After a suitably ominous electronic fuzz and spoken-word clip it establishes the driving rhythm of the album and its dark atmosphere with great guitar riffing. There’s a very brief bridge/solo in the last minutes, but it’s extremely brief and doesn’t make this song any ‘slower’ or more subtle while giving it a melodic edge that such a blunt instrument would normally lack.”

1. Cold (Slaughter of the Soul, 1995)

“Cold” features a great solo and more fabulous guitar work, to the point it stands above the other excellent material on the album. A good example of the genius of the album is in “Cold”, where the culmination takes its roots in an acoustic part, which embroils in the chaos, and the listener is shocked when the furious solo opens afterwards.”