Swedish melodic death metal legends At the Gates have been releasing a new album every few years since their first reunion record, At War With Reality, in 2014. Not all of them have been particularly remarkable, with To Drink From The Night Itself (2018) specifically suffering from poor production and dull songwriting. With their future in question after the untimely passing of longtime vocalist Tomas Lindberg last year, this may be the band’s final album. But what a swansong it is, with the band's strongest songwriting since Slaughter of the Soul (1995) making The Ghost of a Future Dead an exceptional final act.
If you’ve never listened to At the Gates but you’re somehow still familiar with the Gothenburg melodic death metal sound that they pioneered alongside fellow Swedes In Flames and Dark Tranquility, then you most likely have a firm idea as to how The Ghost of a Future Dead sounds. While that unwavering allegiance is laudable, it also presents a couple of issues. It’s difficult for a particular style to sound fresh after 30 years, especially when it's been copied so many times. the band’s trademark sound has become commonplace as legions of bands have been copping it ever since the impeccable, innovative, and highly influential '90s classic Slaughter of the Soul. As a result, all of their reunion albums have felt overshadowed to different degrees. The second issue with the band’s fidelity to their specific sound is that the vast majority of their songs blur together. The At the Gates toolkit is remarkably shallow, but to a certain extent, it has served them well over their long career. Yet, how many times can a band write the same song?
That being said, what I’ve always appreciated about At the Gates was how much more violent, propulsive, and tenebrous their interpretation of the Gothenburg sound was over that of most of their peers. With the classic lineup reformed after Anders Björler's return, that sound is on full display on their newest release. Tracks such as “A Ritual of Waste” or “Tomb of Heaven” feature drummer Adrian Erlandsson’s classic (but overused) high-octane beat that swiftly alternates between the snare and bass drum, coupled with the galloping rhythms and minor harmonies of guitarists Anders Björler and Martin Larsson. On the other end of the spectrum, tracks like “Det Oehorda” and “In Dark Distortion” take a decidedly slower and groovier approach, but not without At the Gates’ characteristic molasses-thick tones and dark melodicism.
Despite the band’s continued devotion to those aspects of their style, the primary strength of The Ghost of a Future Dead lies in the distinct identity that each song retains. My primary complaint about the band’s three previous albums is that the tracks blur together, largely because of the band operating on the default settings I described above. Part of what makes the songwriting distinct on The Ghost of a Future Dead is how memorable specific riffs and sections are. “In Dark Distortion” has a legitimately catchy chorus, while something as simple as the riff with the triplet breakdown in “A Ritual of Waste” seems just outside of the norm for them (but perhaps not for The Haunted). These are just a few of the sections that have seared into my mind as if by branding iron and collectively make The Ghost of a Future Dead an album worth repeated listens.
Beyond the distinct songwriting, there just seems to be so much more energy and life in these songs than those on the band’s last few releases. It’s an aspect that is nearly ineffable, but part of it is almost assuredly the fuller and clearer production. To Drink from the Night Itself (2018) especially suffered from a muddy production, and listening to The Ghost of a Future Dead is like night and day in that respect. But one wouldn’t be out of line by assuming that Anders Björler’s return and Lindberg’s diagnosis had a lot to do with reinvigorating the band and contributing to a stellar (potential) swansong for a band with an outsized influence on the last 30 years of metal.