ALBUM REVIEW: At The Gates, ‘To Drink From The Night Itself’

By: Daniel Jackson

Album Type:Full Length

Date Released:18/05/2018

Label:Century Media Records

 The omnipresent malevolence that coats the majority of the album gives it a different feel from the rest of the band’s catalog. At The Gates do their best to get the best of both worlds: acting as an agent of fan service and staying in their own lane, while also using broad strokes to give the old sound a new context. 

‘To Drink From the Night Itself’ CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Der Widerstand

2. To Drink from the Night Itself

3. A Stare Bound in Stone

4. Palace of Lepers

5. Daggers of Black Haze

6. The Chasm

7. In Nameless Sleep

8. The Colours of the Beast

9. A Labyrinth of Tombs

10. Seas of Starvation

11. In Death They Shall Burn

12. The Mirror Black

The Review:

At The Gates, being in the At The Gates nostalgia business, have returned to be really good at being a version of At The Gatesthat you’d like to hear, as a fan of At The Gates. I know how that read just now, and I don’t care: it’s fucking accurate. They’re a band intent on crafting the best nostalgia album they can, and they’ve done a exceptional job of meeting those goals here. They’ve taken the moody atmosphere of ‘With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness’, gussied it up with a modern studio production, a touch of added darkness, and plugged it into the “Slaughter of The Soul 5000”, their patented nostalgia refinement machine.

The end result is ‘To Drink From The Night Itself’: the album morose death metal folks of a certain age are sure to enjoy enough to spend money on. And bless them for it too! The last thing we need is Jonas Björler getting some wild “got to keep up with the times” hair up his ass, like his other band The Haunted did, and you might remember how long it took them to right that ship once they set sail upon that sea.

The formula for this album is pretty straightforward: you’ve got your slower, melodic parts that range from mournful twin harmonies to murky atmospheric darkness. And then you’ve got your uptempo Slayer beat stuff, which I affectionately referred to as the “Slaughter of the Soul 5000” machine earlier. That’s the stuff meant to get your “Blinded By Fear” glands salivating, like Pavlov’s dog whenever Pavlov entered the room. It’s all very comfortable, like a warm sweater and a cup of hot cocoa at the start of winter.

Here’s the fucked up thing: At The Gates nostalgia baiting us for forty-five minutes still makes for one of the finer death metal albums of the year, and they sound like they’re barely trying. The band are an inexorable monolith of “remember the good old days” emotions here, and all we can do is continue to be fascinated and entranced by it. We’re powerless to resist the charm of familiarity, and really why would we want to? There’s no harm in it.

While that “warm sweater of fond melodeath remembrance” I mentioned earlier is certainly a huge part of why ‘To Drink From The Night Itself’ works so well, it would be unfair to say that the album doesn’t have its own character. They’re especially fond of using those deep, resonant chords for building atmosphere on this album, which gives the album a more menacing feeling altogether. In fact, you could call this At The Gates’ darkest album to date, and have a solid case for that belief. ‘With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness’ was more gloomy than outright ominous, and this album is firmly planted on that second word’s side of things.

For all of my needling the album for playing it safe, ‘To Drink From The Night Itself’ is a big improvement over ‘At War With Reality’. The parts of the album meant to give you a cozy trip down memory lane do so remarkably. The omnipresent malevolence that coats the majority of the album gives it a different feel from the rest of the band’s catalog. At The Gates do their best to get the best of both worlds: acting as an agent of fan service and staying in their own lane, while also using broad strokes to give the old sound a new context. This album is the musical equivalent of reuniting with old friends at your favorite old hangout spot and having a great time, even if the place doesn’t look quite like it did before. An occasion like that is virtually guaranteed to be a joy for you because it was the safest choice to bring you that joy in the first place. Does that really diminish the experience any for you? It didn’t for me.

‘To Drink From the Night Itself’is available digitally here and on CD/LP here.

Band info: Facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Deserted Fear - "Dead Shores Rising"

By: Richard Maw

Album Type: Full  Length

Date Released: 27/01/2017

Label: Century Media Records

This is finely honed death metal, referencing all the greats of the genre from this side of the pond and managing to create an identity all of its own. Deserted Fear are ones to watch for sure: feral stuff, crushing all in their path. This album puts 2017 off to a great start for death metal!

“Dead Shores Rising” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). Intro

2). The Fall of Leaden Skies

3). The Edge of Insanity

4). Open the Gates

5). Corrosion of Souls

6). Interlude

7). Towards Humanity

8). The Carnage

9). Face Our Destiny

10). Till the Last Drop

11). Carry On

12). A Morbid Vision

13). The Path of Sorrow

The Review:

Deserted Fearspecialise in the kind of death metal so beloved of Scandinavian and European bands. Don't think Nile or Immolation. Think Asphyxand Entombed. This is the band's third full length and they bring their Teutonic terror to the masses in fine style here. The tanks roll, the sound is pleasingly clear and bright, but with the right amount of grit to make this sound... real.

No super fast blasting here, no so-low-you-can-barely-hear-them vocals. This is honest to goodness (not much goodness) death metal from Germania. “The Fall of Leaden Skies” is the first track after a scene setting intro and it really sums up the record: if you like this one then “The Edge of Sanity” will get your neck snapping in similar fashion.

The band offer up their own sound, but the aforementioned bands, Revel in Flesh, At The Gates, Dismemberand so on are all valid reference points. “Corrosion of Souls”, “Towards Humanity” and “The Carnage” offer up concise and rocking workouts; the song writing is lean and effective: riffs, changes, good vocals. Some tracks are pacier than others, but this is all head nodding stuff. Death metal, as I live and breathe!

“Face Our Destiny”, “Till the Last Drop” and “Carry On” cap off the album in grandstanding style; so consistent are the band in their sound that the record just flies by. The album also comes with two bonus tracks, both of admirably high quality and a nice touch from Century Media to include them.  “A Morbid Vision” was my favourite of the two, with its' Bolt Thrower esque pacing. There is absolutely nothing to complain about here. This is finely honed death metal, referencing all the greats of the genre from this side of the pond and managing to create an identity all of its own. Deserted Fear are ones to watch for sure: feral stuff, crushing all in their path. This album puts 2017 off to a great start for death metal!

“Dead ShoresRising” is available now

Band info: facebook

FFO: Grave, Bolt Thrower, Asphyx, Bodyfarm

ALBUM REVIEW: The Drip - "The Haunting Fear of Inevitability"

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 13/01/2017

Label: Relapse Records

Over the course of a breathless half an hour they tear through thirteen cuts of crusty death metal infused grindcore. A healthy dose of melody cuts through the violence that brings to mind a cross between Nasum and At The Gates.  “The Haunting Fear of Inevitability” is an enjoyable shot of breakneck, bile-soaked rage that marks The Drip as a band to watch.

“The Haunting Fear of Inevitability” CD//DD//LP

1. Blackest Evocation
2. Anathema
3. Gruesome Poetics
4. Dead Inside
5. Covered In Red
6. Terror War Industry
7. Painted Ram
8. Wretches
9. In Atrophy
10. The Answer
11. Exile
12. Consigned to Fate
13. Bone Chapel

The Review:

Washington quintet The Drip certainly don’t mess around on their furious debut “The Haunting Fear of Inevitability”.

Over the course of a breathless half an hour they tear through thirteen cuts of crusty death metal infused grindcore. A healthy dose of melody cuts through the violence that brings to mind a cross between Nasum and At The Gates. The band aren’t averse to slowing things down either and add some meaty sludgy riffs into the mix to powerful effect and even drag their heels to a doomy crawl during the epic climax of “Wretches”.

The Dripare at their most effective when they  blaze through a variety of styles and tempos during the space of a single track as demonstrated on explosive curtain raiser “Blackest Evocation” or emerge from a blur of speed into a killer riff such as the crunching send-off of “In Atrophy”.  The stand out moments of the record hit hard but there are times when the band’s onslaught lacks that killer instinct and passes by without leaving a lasting impression. However, as a short-term adrenaline rush it can’t be faulted.

“The Haunting Fear of Inevitability” is an enjoyable shot of breakneck, bile-soaked rage that marks The Drip as a band to watch. Once they have honed their attack to perfection they could be a force to be reckoned with.

“The Haunting Fear of Inevitability” is available here

Band info: facebook|| bandcamp