At the Gates was a crucial band in the developmental years of my metal journey (junior high). Their utilization of melodically intricate Maiden influenced guitar leads made it that much easier for me to get into death metal. By the time I hit high school, I fancied myself a full blown old school death metal freak. It’s almost as if ATG took this into consideration when embarking upon a full blown comeback in the mid 2010s. Yours truly purchased their long awaited comeback album, At War with Reality, the day it came out at Rolling Stones in Norridge, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. Not long after, I saw ATG live as part of the annual Decibel Magazine Tour. It was the era of tour packages that made no sense and that tour was no exception: At the Gates, Converge, Pallbearer, and Vallenfyre. Good luck wrapping your head around that one.
As the years went by, I continued to follow At the Gates, while constantly revisiting their classic 90s output because quite frankly, it rules. I recall enjoying 2018’s To Drink from the Night Itself, but nearly as much as At War. There were moments on that album where I felt my beloved melo death heroes were starting to lose their way, perhaps even resting on the laurels of their past and phoning it in. These mixed feelings bring us to the release of ATG’s third reunion album, The Nightmare of Being. And it gives me nothing but heartbreak to say that this album lives up to its name…because it is an utter nightmare.
As the album opener, “Spectre of Extinction”, took charge, I couldn’t help but feel something was off. There’s an earnest attempt at the classic aggression ATG was once known for, but it just falls short. In fact, it sounds less like ATG and more like any number of ATG worship bands who clog the annals of the Metal Archives. The same can be said for “The Paradox” and the title track. These songs balance the line between ferocity and melodrama, but just sound forced and dishonest. I’d expect this of ATG’s far inferior Gothenburg peers, particularly In Flames. As the album goes on, there are brief flashes of Slaughter of the Soul era glory, but these moments are isolated to “Touched by the White Hands of Death” and “The Abstract Enthroned”.
Sonically speaking, The Nightmare of Being has more going for it than just about any ATG release to date. That isn’t necessarily a good thing. The incorporation of progressive nuances make for semi-interesting moments on “The Fall into Time” and “Garden of Cyrpus”, the latter being an atmospheric soundscape which has more in common with Steve Vai than ATG. But all the acoustic guitars, symphonic bombast, and saxophones (yes, saxophones) in the world can’t make up for the musical shortcomings of this album. By the time I got to the post-punk poetry slam that is “Cosmic Pessimism”, I was ready to slam my phone against the wall.
Honesty is being able to admit that even your favorite bands can suck sometimes. The Nightmare of Being doesn’t make me any less of an At the Gates fan. It just makes me eager to put on The Red in the Sky is Ours to get this bad taste out of my mouth and ears.
3 out of 10
Label: Century Media Records
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
For fans of: In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, Dissection