Of course, it’s not every day that you get to see At The Gates, and personally, I doubted if I would ever have the privilege. Thankfully the stars aligned though and some miracle brought them right to my door step in Luxembourg. Unbelievable!
Before the Swedes appeared on this hot June night however, we were confronted with local band Miles To Perdition. While their name draws parallels with the silliness of ‘Bring Me The Horizon’ etc, and they do appear to have deathcore influences, the Luxembourgers dealt out a few nice bits of guitar interplay amidst their heavy rhythms. The vocalist’s attempts to unify the sixty or so punters present in the name of heavy metal (in English, Français and Deutsch) also defied the band’s deceptively straight edge, tidy bearded appearance. Although mildly impressive, the band’s formula wasn’t enough to dissuade me from taking my ice cold beverage outside before very long.
Once the openers had finished, it didn’t take much time for At The Gates to make their way onto the Rockhal stage… A refreshing change from the endless sound checks which draw out most gigs. As the lights dropped further and the intro ‘El Altar Del Dios Desconocido’ cranked out of the PA, the venue started packing out more than might have initially been expected (although certainly not as much as it should have done for this band). Naturally ‘Death and the Labyrinth’ followed, accompanied by the realisation that At The Gates are right there in front of you – something my sixteen-year-old self could never have conceived as he trudged to his weekend job, ‘Slaughter of the Soul’ blasting through walkman headphones… But back to the gig at hand. As the guitarists provided multiple eargasms, Tompa Lindberg stalked from side to side of the stage attempting to whip the crowd up. While this wasn’t the easiest task to begin with, when the likes of ‘Slaughter of the Soul’ emerged, an inescapable air of excitement infected the lucky three hundred or so attendees.
Even with Adrian Erlandsson’s snare dominating the mix during the first batch of tracks, nothing could tarnish the mesmeric riffs and leads on the likes of ‘Cold’. And once the snare situation had been rectified there was absolutely nothing to criticise sound-wise. In terms of playing, well, these guys are faultless – much like The Haunted were if you had the pleasure of seeing them back in the day. The specific point at which the night took off for me however was ‘Terminal Spirit Disease’. From there, the crowd participation really improved – first during brilliant new track ‘Circular Ruins’, then for an amazing rendition of ‘Under A Serpent Sun’. The latter even provoking a crowd surfer which, on one hand, was quite funny given the civilised behaviour so far but equally indicative of the audience’s attempts to make this Saturday night a two-way street. From the band’s debut, ‘Windows’ came across more like a brick wall – Erlandsson’s kicks hammering their way through, and it contrasted surprisingly well with the prerecorded strains of ‘City of Mirrors’.
On this veritable ‘Evening with… At The Gates’, the highlight of the night was probably their vicious rendition of ‘Suicide Nation’. Although, it’s hardly as if witnessing the fret wizardry of ‘Nausea’ was any less impressive; Anders Björler’s fingers – the digits I could see most clearly – seriously appearing to have a mind of their own, running up and down, backwards and forwards at an insane rate. Representing more of the latest disc, the “midnight snack” ‘Eater of Gods’ and ‘The Book of Sand (The Abomination)’ applied further crushing tones and brilliant riffing. The greatest cheer of the night was obviously reserved for ‘Blinded by Fear’ though, the first track of the encore. Perhaps equally unsurprisingly, Tompa’s voice struggled to deliver every vocal part to perfection after the night’s exertions on this tour-de-force. But he was back on form for the penultimate cut ‘Kingdom Gone’.
“Luxembourg, do you like death metal?” the frontman began. (Cue cheers from the crowd.)
“We don’t…” (Cue murmurs of disbelief among the cricket deprived public here.)
“…We love death metal!”
More than any other tune tonight, it was both surreal and awesome to see this familiar, archaic ode to darkness translated live and in the flesh. Kingdom fucking Gone, indeed! In historic contrast, it was left to the final track of the band’s recent comeback album to draw proceedings to a close. In all honesty, I hadn’t been blown away by ‘The Night Eternal’ in its CD form but live it definitely added a sombre and triumphant touch to all that had preceded it. And it also provided one last chance for Lindberg to beat his chest and pump his fists with the Luxembourg faithful before the band members departed piece by piece, leaving a solitary Anders Björler to finish the night off.
It goes without saying that At The Gates are as stylish live as they are on record; perhaps even more so. To see them is a privilege, but to have seen them in such an intimate setting was incredible. In fact this is pretty much the only gig I can recall leaving with a profound sense of disbelief more than any other emotion.
All that’s still going through my mind is: ‘I just saw At The Gates…’
(Jamie)
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