There’s not much more to be said about At the Gates that hasn’t already been said throughout their 30+ year history. Without much debate, the band more or less invented “the Gothenburg sound”, which had an arguably wider and more noticeable impact influentially than the more extreme, ugly sounds defined by “traditional” Death Metal of the early 90’s from the U.S. Sound aside, the band’s lead vocalist Tomas Lindberg (“Tompa”) was heavily involved in the DIY tape trading scene of Death Metals infancy, and was involved in many other side projects throughout the years, most of which found alot of popularity due to Lindberg’s undeniable singing voice and personality (Lock Up, Disfear, Skitsystem, etc). Fun fact – Tompa also created the now infamous Darkthrone logo. I say all this not because I knew Tompa. Far from it. I say this to frame the impact that his passing had this year on the Heavy Metal community as a whole, and the weight that is added to listening to At the Gates new record ‘The Ghost of a Future Dead’. Despite being ill, privately battling a rare form of cancer, Lindberg’s vocals have been claimed to be recorded in a single day, the day before his cancer surgery. Regardless, I was incredibly excited to listen to the new At the Gates offering, just as I am with any ATG release, and had to set their vocalist’s passing aside and treat it just as I do any other album to go in and objectively review what I hear.
Musically this is At the Gates in peak form. The band has an uncanny ability to write incredibly catchy riffs and utilize a variety of chordal structuring to shift moods as they please throughout the entire release. There’s moments of mournful melody, fist pumping groove, speed and everything in between. The Björler brothers have had a long time to perfect their melodeath style of riffing and songwriting and in true ATG fashion, show up any modern songwriters attempting to rip off their style with ease.
The production is large and gives the band the room to really allow their multi layer approach to their sound to soar, as well as highlight their top tier precision on all of their instruments. All parts are heard with clarity and the natural push and pull of vocals and lead guitars really highlights the band’s veteran prowess and ability to craft truly memorable songs.
Despite losing his battle with the devilish and unforgiving beast known as cancer this year, Lindberg’s trademark vocal style remained mostly strong during the recording and in fact, has some of the better production to accompany it than some previous ATG releases. His voice dips down into a lower register at points throughout the album which provides an added “bite” to certain lyrical passages. There are times where it sounds like Tomas has some more “gas” than others, which may verify the claims that this was recorded in a single day, but holistically, Lindberg provided a triumphant and strong final performance worthy to stand up against any of his previous efforts across all of his past projects.
As a whole, you’re not getting anything new out of ‘The Ghost of Future Dead’. In fact, I think the album could have been one or two songs shorter than it is since the swings in style are not that drastic from front to back. I encourage the listener to set my minor critical comments aside and take this for what it is – the classy and expertly crafted final offering of Gothenburg Death from At the Gates with the Godfather of the style himself at the helm.
Rest in Power, “Tompa”.
