666 : Metal Foot Soldiers

Not every change maker is a household name. Metal is full of unsung heroes. Courageous individuals who shaped our world but would be difficult to pick out in a line-up. For every platinum-selling mega album, there are hundreds, if not thousands of records that may not have sold loads, but have created the architecture of our musical world. “Slaughter Of The Soul” is one of those albums. Released in 1995 into a grunge-obsessed world that was rejecting traditional metal, it initially made few waves but cumulatively in the years that followed it single handedly sculptured our music's ongoing development. For At the Gates, “Slaughter Of The Soul” was their fourth album in as many years. There were a few ripples of interest when they released it, but not enough to keep the boat afloat, and the band split less than ten months after it hit the shelves.

What defines an influential masterpiece is its afterlife. At The Gates may have been no more, but the rumours began to swirl of an album that managed to marry the brutality of death metal with the melodic might of traditional metal, A special album that in 34 minutes and 11 tracks (2 of them instrumentals) provides the blueprint for everything that comes after it, It deliciously combines nihilistic darkness with clean melodic refrains and soaring anthemic passages. The guitar solo on third track ‘Cold’ is hands down the finest piece of guitar work ever committed to tape. As metal found again its popularity in the late nineties and early noughties, “Slaughter Of The Soul” was continually cited as a forgotten gem that was born before its time.

The emerging American metalcore movement unashamedly mined the past and as part of that, it went back for inspiration to the Gothenburg melodic death metal movement that At the Gates had been part of alongside Dark Tranquillity and In Flames. The inspired mixture of harshness and luscious melody carved a path that defined and continues to define modern metal. As metal is full of second acts, At the Gates reformed in 2007 to the rapturous reception that they never received in their first incarnation. This is where I come in. I would love to claim that I discovered “Slaughter Of The Soul” on its first release, but I didn’t, I was busy ignoring metal (I took the entire nineties off) and dancing to bleepy music. I would love to say that I saw them in the small northern provincial town that I now live when they played the Witchwood in Ashton-under-Lyne in 1995 to around twenty people, but I didn’t, I was probably at an out-of-town rave. But when the At the Gates reformation happened, I went backwards and discovered an album that will forever be etched in my heart.

I tell you all this because today we lost At the Gates’ talismanic frontman Tomas Lindburg. There will be few fanfares and heartfelt tributes but Metal has been deprived of one of its visionaries and auteurs. He loved metal. Where some acts wandered off into other pastures (I'm looking at you, In Flames) At the Gates remained unashamedly a death metal band and Tomas was a proud death metal growler. He barked out his words, crisp, cohesive and full of bile and passion. He owned the stage. Off it, he was a clever and thoughtful man, continuing to balance teaching philosophy and ethics with being in an active metal band. 

As I said, there will be limited column inches, but Tomas is a soul to be celebrated. He is responsible for so much music and not just his own. Hundreds of musicians heard “Slaughter Of The Soul” and went off and formed bands. Bands like Killswitch Engage, Machine Head, Gojira and Trivium. Bands that continue to shape our world and feed our souls. And they do that in part because of an album that Tomas made back in 1995. And through that, he will never leave us. Tomas Lindberg rest in beautiful noise.