''Slaughter of the Soul'' is the fourth studio album by Swedish

melodic death metal Melodic death metal (also referred to as melodeath) is a subgenre of death metal that employs highly melodic guitar riffs, often borrowing from traditional heavy metal (including New Wave of British Heavy Metal). The genre features the heavine ...

band

At the Gates 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 alongside In Flames and Dark Tranquillity. Prior to their first disbandment in 1996, At the Gat ...

, released on November 14, 1995. It was their last album before their eleven-year breakup from 1996 to 2007. ''Slaughter of the Soul'' is considered a landmark in melodic death metal and played a major role in popularizing the Gothenburg scene, alongside ''

The Jester Race ''The Jester Race'' is the second studio album by Swedish heavy metal band In Flames, released in February 1996. It is the first album to feature Anders Fridén as the band's vocalist, Björn Gelotte as the drummer, and Jester Head as the ban ...

'' by In Flames and '' The Gallery'' by Dark Tranquillity. The album was recorded and mixed in Studio Fredman, early 1995.

Andy LaRocque Andy LaRocque (born Anders Allhage, 29 November 1962) is a Swedish guitarist, songwriter, and producer, best known as a member of the heavy metal band King Diamond since 1985. Biography LaRocque started in the Swedish hard rock band Swedish Bea ...

's neo-classical guest solo on "Cold" was widely acclaimed as one of the greatest metal solos and guitarist Anders Björler admitted in 2007 that he still could not play it properly. "Blinded by Fear" was covered by The Haunted (composed largely of ex-At the Gates members) on their Japanese version of their live/double disc album, '' Live Rounds in Tokyo'' and was also covered by

Fleshgod Apocalypse Fleshgod Apocalypse is an Italian symphonic death metal band. Formed in 2007, the group resides in Perugia and are currently signed to Nuclear Blast. They have released five full-length albums. History Formation and ''Oracles'' (2007–2009) Fl ...

on their ''Mafia'' EP. The song also appeared in the game '' Rock Band 2'' as downloadable content.

Musical appearances

Tracks from the album have made appearances in several video games. * "Blinded by Fear" was made available as

downloadable content Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enabli ...

for the '' Rock Band'' video game series on March 28, 2008. Later, it was included in the game's retail " Metal Track Pack" add-on content disc, released on September 22, 2009 in North America. The song is considered one of the most difficult songs in the series to perform on drums, due to its fast tempo. * The title track is featured in both '' Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned'' and ''

Tony Hawk's Proving Ground ''Tony Hawk's Proving Ground'' is a 2007 skateboarding video game developed by Neversoft for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Vicarious Visions for the Nintendo DS, and by Page 44 Studios for the PlayStation 2 and Wii. ''Proving Ground'' is the n ...

''.

Reissues

A 2002 Reissue contained 11 tracks from the original 1995 release of ''Slaughter of the Soul'', plus 6 bonus audio tracks. Three of the bonus tracks were cover songs, two were demo tracks, and 1 was a previously unreleased track, recorded during the ''Slaughter of the Soul'' sessions. The 2006 reissue contained everything from the 2002 reissue, but also included an additional bonus DVD, which featured a 35-minute behind-the-scenes documentary as the highlight. The 2008 reissue contains everything from the 2002 and 2006 rereleases (all audio and DVD material), as well as additional DVD footage—an eight-song live set, recorded in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

on December 30, 1995.

Reception

Critical reception

Reviews for ''Slaughter of the Soul'' have been mostly positive.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

's Steve Huey awarded the album five stars and called it an "excellent example of Gothenburg-style melodic death metal, and certainly the band's best and most focused album to date." '' Rock Hard'', however, thinks the band has become interchangeable with its many clones, and Deathmetal.org labels it At the Gates' sellout album, sounding like " Metallica attempting '' ...And Justice For All'' in a stylistic mashup between

Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. While fluid in the early years of the band, the lineup for most of the band's history has consisted of Harri ...

and Judas Priest during ''

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.''"

Accolades

In 2005, the album was ranked number 300 in '' Rock Hard'' magazine's book of ''The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time''. Metal Injection ranked ''Slaughter of the Soul'' eighth on their list "Top 10 Influential Heavy Metal Albums". The album was inducted into the

Decibel Magazine ''Decibel'' is a monthly heavy metal magazine published by the Philadelphia-based Red Flag Media since October 2004. Its sections include Upfront, Features, Reviews, Guest Columns and the Decibel Hall of Fame. The magazine's tag-line is currentl ...

Hall of Fame in March 2005, being the second album overall to receive such award. In 2017, ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' ranked ''Slaughter of the Soul'' as 79th on their list of "The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time".

Track listing

Credits

Writing, performance and production credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.

Personnel

At the Gates

* Tomas Lindberg − vocals * Anders Björler − guitar, phaser drums on "Into the Dead Sky" * Martin Larsson − guitar * Jonas Björler − bass * Adrian Erlandsson − drums

Guest musicians

− guitar solo on "Cold"

Production

* Fredrik Nordström − production * At the Gates – co-production * Noel Summerville − mastering

Artwork and design

Kristian Wåhlin Kristian Wåhlin (born 4 December 1971) is a Swedish musician, singer, graphic designer and album cover artist for many bands in the extreme metal scene worldwide. He is often credited under his pseudonym Necrolord. Biography Wåhlin's interes ...

− artwork, logo * Absolute Design Associates – additional artwork and layout * Frequent Form – logo concept

Studios

* Studio Fredman, Gothenburg, Sweden – recording, mixing * Transfermation – mastering

Charts

References

External links

*
''Slaughter of the Soul''
at

's official website
''Slaughter of the Soul''
at Earache Records {{Authority control 1995 albums Albums recorded at Studio Fredman Albums with cover art by Kristian Wåhlin At the Gates albums Earache Records albums Albums produced by Fredrik Nordström