Search - At the Gates :: Red in the Sky Is Ours

Oui oui

Lord Chimp | Monkey World | 06/21/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"everyone who has ever explored Swedish death metal has At the Gates' _Slaughter of the Soul_, or at least had a metal-loving friend play it for them. that's a bloody good metal album! and rightly considered a classic. yet surprisingly the band's most startling and unique release is their obscure debut, _the red in the sky is ours_.



first i want to say that if you have read negative reviews of this album ignore them completely. I think there is something of a cop-out in saying, as some critics have, that this is some kind of "Entombed clone" or that it's immature. At the Gates is possessed of an impetuous musical ambition of the sort usually only found in the youngest metal bands, but they have crazy chops and progressive songwriting skills beyond their age. A valid comparison would be the earlier Dark Tranquillity albums - fast and tremolo-y, with an explicit melodic focus -- but at the same time being thrashier & deathier, with more of a tech/progmetal angle, and a violin. Jespers the violinist contributes a unique quality to about half the songs, fr'example with florid solos ("The Season to Come") and lamentful leads during an ultra-melodic metal fadeout ("Windows"), and fast trills with galloping double-bass and dual guitar leads ("Neverwhere"). Very unusual, and it is implemented with faultless taste. The songs are longer on average than their later tracks, with movement-like structures, spastic time-changes, and lacking the typical metal motivic progression. The riffs are completely deranged, the dual guitar playing evil and tight, and the drumming some of the most complex and impressive in the style. it may sound incoherent at first, which is perhaps why many reviewers dislike this album when compared to their strike-n-recoil tracks on later discs. The variety is also remarkable. When you hear songs like "Claws of Laughter Dead" (sic) and "Neverwhere" you'll at times think you were hearing something like Atheist; when you hear "Within" you'll wonder why this album isn't revered in underground prog-metal circles; and when you hear the short, weird "The Scar", with its unsettling whispers and electronically processed dual guitar constructions, you'll feel a shiver pass through your flesh. The production would be dated out of context, but most of the early albums of this style sounded like this so it's basically idiomatic and suits it rather well. If you are looking for some of the best, "old style" of Gothenburg metal then don't forget to pick this up with your Dark Tranq and In Flames albums.

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What might have been . . .

General Zombie | the West | 08/31/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."