Slaughter of the Soul is the fourth studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band At the Gates, released on November 14, 1995. 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. 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 couldn't play it properly. "Blinded by Fear" was covered by The Haunted 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 gameRock Band 2 as downloadable content.
Musical appearances
Tracks from the album have made appearances in several video games.
"Blinded by Fear" was made available as downloadable content for the Rock Bandvideo 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.
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, as well as additional DVD footage—an eight-song live set, recorded in Kraków, Poland on December 30, 1995.
Reception
Critical reception
Reviews for Slaughter of the Soul have been mostly positive. 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."
Accolades
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 No. 8 on their list "Top 10 Influential Heavy Metal Albums." Slaughter of the Soul was inducted into the Decibel MagazineHall 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.'
