Coming off their competent, but hardly groundbreaking, debut, The Red in the Sky Is Ours, few would have picked At the Gates as death metal superstars in the making.
Yet, with their sophomore effort, the grandly named With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness, the boys from Gothenburg, Sweden, made significant strides to proving most everyone wrong.
Possibly their most experimental outing, the album contained a number of highlights in "Burning Darkness" and "Raped by the Light of Christ" (oooo-kay), whose unbridled fury and insidious melodies would serve as rough blueprints for future triumphs.
On the other hand, technically ambitious, more involved experiments like "Ever-Opening Flower" and the seven-minute "Primal Breath" come off too contrived and ultimately can't compare in terms of intensity to their more concise counterparts.
Still, it was obvious that the once samey Swedes had serious potential, if only they could find a way to harness their power and aggression into shorter bursts -- something they would achieve with their next effort, the much improved Terminal Spirit Disease.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beyond Good and EvilAt the Gates | At the Gates | Play | 02:42 | 6 MB | 0 MB |
| 2 | Raped by the Light of ChristAt the Gates | At the Gates | Play | 02:59 | 6 MB | 0 MB |
| 3 | Non-DivineAt the Gates | At the Gates | Play | 04:43 | 10 MB | 0 MB |
| 4 | Primal BreathAt the Gates | At the Gates | Play | 07:22 | 16 MB | 0 MB |
| 5 | The ArchitectsAnders Björler, Tomas Lindberg, Alf Svensson | At the Gates | Play | 03:30 | 8 MB | 0 MB |
| 6 | StardrownedAt the Gates | At the Gates | Play | 04:02 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 7 | Blood of the SunsetsAt the Gates | At the Gates | Play | 04:35 | 10 MB | 0 MB |
| 8 | The Burning DarknessAt the Gates | At the Gates | Play | 02:17 | 5 MB | 0 MB |
| 9 | Ever-Opening FlowerAt the Gates | At the Gates | Play | 05:00 | 11 MB | 0 MB |
| 10 | Through the RedAt the Gates | At the Gates | Play | 03:27 | 7 MB | 0 MB |
| 11 | Break Of Autumn | At The Gates | Play | 04:59 | 11 MB | 0 MB |
| 45 mins | 104 MB | |||||
| 0 mins | 0 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | At the Gates | Arranger, Composer, Layout Design, Primary Artist, Producer |
| 2 | Anders Björler | Composer, Guitar |
| 3 | Jonas Björler | Bass |
| 4 | Adrian Erlandsson | Drums |
| 5 | Fred Estby | Engineer |
| 6 | Åke Hodell | Cover Art |
| 7 | Matti Karki | Vocals (Background) |
| 8 | Martin Larsson | Guitar |
| 9 | Tomas Lindberg | Composer, Vocals |
| 10 | Lars Linden | Engineer |
| 11 | Dave Pybus | Layout Design |
| 12 | Tomas Skogsberg | Engineer |
| 13 | Noel Summerville | Mastering |
| 14 | Alf Svensson | Composer |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |