Band:	At The Gates
Album:	The Red In The Sky Is Ours
Style:	Melodic death metal
Release date:	July 27, 1992
Guest review by:	GamlaSonn

01. The Red In The Sky Is Ours / The Season To Come
02. Kingdom Gone
03. Through Gardens Of Grief
04. Within
05. Windows
06. Claws Of Laughter Dead
07. Neverwhere
08. The Scar
09. Night Comes, Blood Black
10. City Of Screaming Statues [bonus]
11. All Life Ends [live] [2001 Digipak bonus]
12. Kingdom Gone [live] [2001 Digipak bonus]
13. Ever-Opening Flower [demo] [2001 Digipak bonus]

At The Gates is a legendary band that needs no huge introduction. We got Tomas Lindberg doing the tormented growling, the Björler brothers on guitar and bass respectively, also an inspirational musician named Alf Svensson on the guitar. Adrian Erlandsson behind the drumkit.

From the opener "The Red In The Sky Is Ours / The Season To Come" it's apparent that this album is no easy catchy ride. Complicated structures, strange riffs and multiple tempo changes define this very original piece of art. The strangeness of the music is in the very core of answering why The Red In The Sky Is Ours or "simply" TRITSIO, is nothing less than a masterpiece. Now masterpiece is a big word, it's easy to throw it around until it means nothing, but in this case there are absolutely no doubts. Every single entity of the band creates a work of immense originality; I mean, tell me where to find anything that sounds like this and I will kiss your dirty feet.

I suppose the most "accepted" song here is "Kingdom Gone" and I don't mean that like it's a bad thing, it is a highly enjoyable song. Another notable track is "The Scar" which is a melodic instrumental (with some whispering). It's not bad, but it doesn't beat (few instrumentals do!) "And The World Returned" from Terminal Spirit Disease. "City of Screaming Statues" is originally from their debut EP and I concur it's the best song to include on TRITSIO. Well now that we've talked about some minor details, let's talk about the music.

The guitar riffs very much sounds like death metal, but still they are unique. How can you describe them? It's like he has cut death metal riffs in pieces, shuffled them and then glued them together reversely. But man, does it sound good. The strange riffs and strangeness overall apparently has a lot of doing with the brain of Alf Svensson. Remember the name, this man is a genius.

The drumming fits in perfectly with the "weirdness" of it all, playing both unorthodoxly and of course blastbeating. Erlandsson is also alternating between styles just as often as the guitar riffs. He's also using the bass pedals with great effect; by spamming, bursting or not using them at all, he highlights other instruments or accompanies them.

Tomas Lindberg screams have rarely sounded better than here. Neither is he an exception in this strange work. He either waits patiently and let the magic unfold or support with ghoulish growls in that trademark hoarse style of his. His lines are spread all over the place and they're often screamed in small bursts. Every single word of his is given a special part and effort.

Even the bass lines are strange sounding! Well, the little that is audible anyway.

The song structures are totally unpredictable, like the songs live their own lives. You go from melodies to neckbreaking speeds to full stop. This is a huge factor of why this album is so great, it NEVER grows old! It's definitely a grower. Many people dismiss it at first because it's too complicated. I say, embrace it slowly, be patient and you shall be rewarded. Of course, a love for Death metal helps a lot.

Originality is a rarity in death metal. Ironically (or not?) am I talking about a product from the early '90s, close to the death metal boom. At The Gates will never only be "notorious" for pushing the melodic death metal and metalcore genres, they have created some of the finest death metal ever.

And that concludes this review (or call it subjective praising). Hopefully you'll learn to love this album as much as I do (if you don't already do so).