At the Gates’ 2014 return At War with Reality was a much celebrated venture, both for fans of the band and melodeath as a whole. Much had changed since their seminal 1995 record Slaughter of the Soul, but like fellow genre progenitors Carcass, who had issued their comeback Surgical Steel a year prior, the band played it safe with an albums worth of music that stuck to their signature sound. Four years on, the Swedes have album number six ready to go, although it will be their first without founding member Anders Björler, who left the group a little over 12 months ago.
Listening through To Drink from the Night Itself, it appears that the group have been unperturbed by Björler’s exit, despite him being a key member of the songwriting team on their more recent works (along with brother Jonas). This will surely come as a relief to fans of the group, but perhaps the exit of a long time member has once again driven the group to stay safely within the confines they have previously set themselves. There’s a distinct lack of adventure to much of the material, and once the acoustic pluckings, choral female vocals and unsettling strings of intro “Der Widerstand” have bled into the bog standard Gothenburg style title track, there’s little atmosphere to be found until the dying throes of “The Mirror Black”, which closes in a similar fashion, allowing the record to come full circle. Between these two bookends lies a competent but largely unimaginative set of songs, many of which fall into tired stylistic cliches.
It is this lack of imagination that drags down otherwise decent songs. The biggest concern for me would be lasting appeal, as whilst the initial few listens will be rewarding, there will likely be diminishing returns as the excitement factor wears off. Adrian Erlandsson’s drumming exacerbates the problem; as ordinary and bland a performance as you could hear from him. There’s not a lot of variation in the beats used and there’s a noticeable lack of interesting fills, making it difficult for most of the songs to establish an identity. Anyone who has heard him play knows he’s a fantastic drummer, but this will not be one of his career highlights. This is further compounded by an incredibly oppressive mix that seems to be dialled up to 11 at all times. The wall of sounds gives the music little room to breathe, and the lack of any dynamics or subtlety doesn’t allow any nuances the songs have to shine through. I know it’s an extreme form of music, but some of it is quite pretty, and producer Russ Russell would’ve done well to highlight this.
It’s not all doom and gloom of course, as on a 12 track album a band as capable as this is always going to hit the mark on at least a few occasions. The might of “The Chasm” features melodic tremolo riffs offset against heavier riffs; just listen to the way the chorus riff lurches under the melody. Mid paced crusher “The Colours of the Beast” steamrolls along, incorporating some twisted grooves and an ungodly stomp as it marches on, whilst the spectacular, slower grandeur of “The Mirror Black” is sadly curtailed too early; what a beast of a song it could’ve been. The passage of time has also been kind to frontman Tomas Lindberg, whose snarled rasp sounds as menacing as ever.
There appears to be far more negative than positive commentary in this review, but overall, this is a fair record. When all is said and done though, it’s just another At the Gates album. For some, that will suffice; for others, it may only be enough for a cursory listen at best. You’ll know which camp you fall into, so act accordingly.
Highlights: “The Chasm”, “The Colours of the Beast”, “The Mirror Black”
Find out more about At the Gates online:
To Drink from the Night Itself is available on May 18th via Century Media Records, and can be purchased here.
