Slaughter of the Soul

Slaughter of the Soul
Album info
Release	November 14, 1995
Recorded	May-July 1995
Genre	Melodic death metal
Length	34:08
Label	Earache
Producer	Fredrik Nordström, At the Gates

Slaughter of the Soul is the fourth studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band At the Gates, released on November 14, 1995. It was their last album before their eleven year breakup from 1996 to 2007. Slaughter of the Soul is considered a landmark in melodic death metal and played a major role in popularizing the Gothenburg scene, alongside The Jester Race by In Flames and The Gallery by Dark Tranquillity). Andy Larocque's neo-classical guest solo on "Cold" was widely acclaimed as one of the greatest metal solosTemplate:Needs citation and guitarist Anders Björler admitted in 2007 he still couldn't play it properly.

"Blinded by Fear" was covered by The Haunted on their Japanese version of their live/double disc album, Live Rounds in Tokyo and was also covered by Fleshgod Apocalypse on their Mafia EP.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Tomas Lindberg, Anders Björler and Jonas Björler, except where noted.

#	Track title	Length
1.	"Blinded by Fear"	3:12
2.	"Slaughter of the Soul"	3:02
3.	"Cold" (Solo by Andy Larocque)	3:27
4.	"Under a Serpent Sun"	3:58
5.	"Into the Dead Sky" (Tomas Lindberg, Jonas Björler)	2:12
6.	"Suicide Nation"	3:35
7.	"World of Lies" (Tomas Lindberg, Anders Björler, Jonas Björler, Martin Larsson)	3:35
8.	"Unto Others"	3:11
9.	"Nausea"	2:23
10.	"Need"	2:36
11.	"The Flames of the End" (Tomas Lindberg, Anders Björler, Lars Johansson)	2:57

Re-issue (2002)

Contains 11 tracks from the original 1995 release of Slaughter of the Soul, plus 6 bonus audio tracks. Three of the bonus tracks were cover songs, two were demo tracks, and 1 was a previously unreleased track, recorded during the Slaughter of the Soul sessions.

Bonus audio tracks

#	Track title	Length
12.	"Legion" (Slaughter Lord cover)	3:54
13.	"The Dying" (Unreleased track from Slaughter of the Soul sessions)	3:18
14.	"Captor of Sin" (Slayer cover)	3:19
15.	"Unto Others" ('95 Demo)	3:06
16.	"Suicide Nation" ('95 Demo)	3:22
17.	"Bister Verklighet" (No Security cover)	1:55

Re-issue (2006)

Contained everything from the 2002 re-issue, but also included an additional bonus DVD, which featured a 35-minute behind-the-scenes documentary as the highlight.

2006 Bonus DVD

• "Making of Slaughter of the Soul" featurette
• Deleted Scenes
• Music video: "Blinded by Fear"

Re-issue (2008)

Contains everything from the 2002 and 2006 re-releases (all audio and DVD material), as well as additional DVD footage—an eight song live set, recorded in Kraków, Poland on December 30, 1995.

• Live from Kraków, Poland

#	Track title	Length
1.	"Terminal Spirit Disease"
2.	"Cold"
3.	"The Swarm"
4.	"Blinded by Fear"
5.	"Nausea"
6.	"Forever Blind"
7.	"Need"
8.	"Kingdom Gone"

• "Making of Slaughter of the Soul" featurette
• Deleted Scenes
• Music video: "Blinded by Fear"

Musical appearances

Tracks from the album have made appearances in several video games.

• "Blinded by Fear" was made available as downloadable content for the Rock Band video game series on March 28, 2008. Later, it was included in the game's retail "Metal Track Pack" add-on content disc, released on September 22, 2009 in North America. The song is considered one of the most difficult songs in the series to perform on drums, due to its fast tempo.
• The title track is featured in both Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned and Tony Hawk's Proving Ground.

Personnel

At the Gates

• Tomas Lindberg − vocals
• Anders Björler − guitar, drums on track "Into The Dead Sky"
• Jonas Björler − bass
• Adrian Erlandsson − drums
• Martin Larsson − guitar

Additional musicians

• Andy LaRocque − guitar solo on "Cold"

Production

• At the Gates and Fredrik Nordström − production
• Noel Summerville − mastering
• Kristian Wåhlin − artwork, design, photography
• Björn Mankner − photography

Videos