Slaughter of the Soul is the fourth studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band At the Gates, released on 14 November 1995 by Earache Records. 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 by In Flames and The Gallery by Dark Tranquillity. The album was recorded and mixed in Studio Fredman, early 1995.
Music journalist T Coles described the album's sound as "melodic and weird", saying that At the Gates were "cleaner" than fellow Swedish death metal band Entombed, yet "dirtier" than the technical death metal bands of the United States.
Andy LaRocque'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 on their Mafia EP. The song also appeared in the game Rock Band 2 as downloadable content.
According to Vlad Nichols of Ultimate Guitar, At the Gates "officiated the birth of the characteristic Gothenburg sound" with Slaughter of the Soul.
Tracks from the album have made appearances in several video games.
- "Blinded by Fear" was made available as downloadable content 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.
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, Poland on December 30, 1995.
Reviews for Slaughter of the Soul have been highly positive, acclaiming the album as a landmark record in the development of the Swedish death metal scene. AllMusic'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 and Judas Priest during Painkiller."
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 Hall of Fame in March 2005, being the second album overall to receive such award. In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked Slaughter of the Soul as 79th on their list of "The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time". The same magazine later ranked the title track number eighty-seven on their list of "The 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs of All Time"
Track listing
All lyrics are written by Lindberg; all music is composed by A. Björler and J. Björler, except where noted.
- "Blinded by Fear" A. Björler 3:12
- "Slaughter of the Soul" 3:02
- "Cold" 3:27
- "Under a Serpent Sun" A. Björler 4:00
- "Into the Dead Sky" (instrumental) 2:12
- "Suicide Nation" A. Björler 3:35
- "World of Lies" A. Björler, J. Björler, Larsson 3:35
- "Unto Others" 3:11
- "Nausea" A. Björler 2:23
- "Need" 2:36
- "The Flames of the End" (instrumental) A. Björler, Johansson, Lindberg 2:57
Total length: 34:10
2002 reissue bonus tracks
- "Legion" (Slaughter Lord cover) 3:54
- "The Dying" (Unreleased track from Slaughter of the Soul sessions) 3:18
- "Captor of Sin" (Slayer cover) Hanneman, King 3:19
- "Unto Others" ('95 Demo) 3:06
- "Suicide Nation" ('95 Demo) 3:22
- "Bister Verklighet" (No Security cover) 1:55
Total time: 53:09
"Into the Dead Sky" and "The Flames of the End" are instrumentals, but, in the booklet, there are comments for the tracks.
Track 12 is a cover of the australian band, aka Slaughter Lord and others.
Track 13 is a previously unreleased song from the album sessions.
A video was made for Blinded by Fear.
Recording information:
Recorded and mixed in Studio Fredman, Gothenburg, Sweden from May-July 1995.
Fredrik Nordström − production
At the Gates – co-production
Noel Summerville − mastering
Kristian Wåhlin − artwork, logo
Absolute Design Associates – additional artwork and layout
Frequent Form – logo concept
Studio Fredman, Gothenburg, Sweden – recording, mixing
Transfermation – mastering