Line #33 Music/AtTheGates


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_at_the_gates_3962.jpg]]
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3	At the Gates is a death metal band from Gothenburg, Sweden, and possibly, out of the three Gothenburg bands that pioneered the genre of MelodicDeathMetal, the most-often cited as an influence (the other two being Music/DarkTranquillity and Music/InFlames).
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5	The band was formed in 1990 by former members of the {{death\|Metal}}[=/=]{{black metal}} band Grotesque. They recorded a debut EP, ''Gardens of Grief'', which led Peaceville Records ([[Music/MyDyingBride yes]], [[Music/ParadiseLost that]] [[Music/AnathemaBand one]]) to sign the band, and they released their debut album, ''The Red in the Sky is Ours'', which featured an eclectic and technical sound, including, for instance, neoclassical arrangements and even a string solo.
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7	They continued with their technical style on their second album, ''With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness'', but moved away from it with ''Terminal Spirit Disease'', considered their breakthrough album. In 1995, they released the legendary ''Slaughter of the Soul'', possibly the most important album in defining melodeath as a subgenre. ''Slaughter of the Soul'' was a huge commercial success (unfortunately for disgruntled fans of the band's more complex early works), but despite this success, the band broke up in 1996.
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9	Like fellow melodeath pioneers Music/{{Carcass}}, they reformed at a later date (in [=AtG=]'s case, 2007) to play several reunion shows.
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11	Despite originally planning for their 2007-2008 tour to be their last, At the Gates reunited once again in 2010 for some festival dates and have continued to play shows since then. Although they had stated in numerous interviews that they had no plans to release new material, the band confirmed in January 2014 that they had signed to Century Media Records[[note]]The same label of fellow melodeath co-{{Trope Codifier}}s Music/InFlames and Music/DarkTranquillity[[/note]] and entered the studio in the summer to record ''At War With Reality'', their first album in 19 years.
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13	'''Current lineup:'''
14	* Tomas Lindberg − vocals (1990–1996, 2007–2008, 2010-present)
15	* Adrian Erlandsson − drums (1990–1996, 2007–2008, 2010-present)
16	* Jonas Björler − bass (1990–1992, 1993–1996, 2007–2008, 2010-present)
17	* Martin Larsson − rhythm guitar (1993–1996, 2007–2008, 2010-present)
18	* Anders Björler − lead guitar (1990–1996, 2007–2008, 2010-2017, 2022-present)
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20
21	'''Former members:'''
22	* Alf Svensson − rhythm guitar (1990–1993)
23	* Jonas Stålhammar − lead guitar (2017-2022)
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25	'''Studio albums:'''
26	* ''The Red in the Sky is Ours'', 1992
27	* ''With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness'', 1993
28	* ''Terminal Spirit Disease'', 1994
29	* ''Slaughter of the Soul'', 1995
30	* ''At War With Reality'', 2014
31	* ''To Drink From the Night Itself'', 2018
32	* ''The Nightmare of Being'', 2021
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34	----
35	!!Tropes of the Soul:
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37	* BadassBookworm: Tomas Lindberg works as a social studies teacher for his day job, and not only do his students know about his status as a musician, but he has even graded tests while on tour during down time.
38	* ConceptAlbum: ''At War with Reality'' is one that is based on a literary genre known as magic realism while ''To Drink From the Night Itself'' is inspired by Peter Weiss' novel The Aesthetics of Resistance.
39	* DeathMetal: ''The Red in the Sky is Ours'' and ''With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness'' are straight-up death metal albums. They also border on TechnicalDeathMetal, though the band wasn't a particularly big influence on tech-death compared to say, Music/{{Death}}, Music/{{Atheist}} and Music/{{Cynic}}.
40	* LastChorusSlowDown: Songs "Cold" and "Unto Others" almost resemble this, only that it's not exactly the "chorus" they slow down for. Still epic bridges (unless you're not into ''Slaughter Of The Soul'').
41	* MetalScream: Tomas Lindberg's vocals are a solid Type 3, though his work with The Lurking Fear is somewhere between a Type 1 and a Type 2.
42	* MelodicDeathMetal: TropeMaker, along with In Flames and Dark Tranquillity.
43	* SignatureStyle: A very thick, harmonized dual guitar style involving lots of chugging, heavy grooves, and harmonic minor chords, and throat-cracking, very pissed-off screams, set to typical blastbeat-led DeathMetal drumming. Of the three big melodeath bands, they were the most abrasive.
44	* TropeMaker: They co-created MelodicDeathMetal alongside Music/InFlames and Music/DarkTranquillity.
45	* TropeCodifier: For the heavy, chug-driven style of melodeath as played by more modern examples such as Music/AmonAmarth, [=DevilDriver=], Music/{{Arsis}}, Eyeconoclast, Mnemic, Kalmah, Music/{{Hypocrisy}}, Music/TheHaunted, Music/HeavenShallBurn, Music/TheBlackDahliaMurder, Music/{{Kataklysm}} (on later albums), Music/{{Revocation}}, Music/ShadowOfIntent (from ''Melancholy'' onwards) and ''even'' [[WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}} Dethklok]].
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Context Music / AtTheGates