Crunch Time: At The Gates

GO!

*Welcome to the latest edition of Crunch Time, where I swoon over some of my favorite HEAVY riffs.*

Sometimes a band can be too awesome for their own good. At The Gates were one such band. Comin' straight outta Gothenburg (ya'll betta make way), these Swedish bastards changed the metal world forever with the release of their 1995 album, Slaughter of the Soul. Alas, like Padme dying in child birth after popping out Luke & Leia, At The Gates disbanded shortly after the album's release. Mixing the fuzzy dirge of traditional Swedish death metal with equal doses of German thrash and Iron Maiden style harmonies, Slaughter of the Soul became the gold standard to which all future melodic death metal albums would be judged. Spawning a legion of imitators (most of whom sucked) and indirectly creating the modern American metal core scene (most of whom really suck), At The Gate's final album can viewed as a double edged sword by some. I personally choose to look on the bright side when it comes to Slaughter of the Soul. That bright side including awesome ass songs like today's Crunch Time selection, the album's self titled second track, "Slaughter of the Soul."

The first six seconds of this song are legendary. The intro guitar riff sounds like someone waltzing with a bumble bee before the guitars literally scream "CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH!" Then Tomas chimes in...."GOOOOoooo!"


I was lucky enough to have caught At The Gate's reunion tour back in 2008. Those two SoCal shows they put on will be burned into my memory for all times. Here's a clip from that tour's NYC stop, it's damn near heavy metal karaoke the way the crowd drowns out the vocals! Gotta love it.