ORDER FROM CHAOS

Three albums into their reunion phase, The Nightmare of Being finds Swedish death metalers At the Gates addressing their legacy while pushing off into wild new horizons

- GREGORY ADAMS

THE ABSENCE OF LIVE MUSIC AT the start of the pandemic made Swedish metal icons At the Gates especially nostalgic for some of their favorite concert moments. Understandably, when lockdowns began ramping up in earnest around the spring of 2020, the quintet saw festival appearances booked for that summer go by the wayside – with makeup dates being pushed well off into the distance. Since they weren't stepping onstage any time soon, At the Gates used the downtime to write and record The Nightmare of Being, their third album since reforming in 2007, and seventh overall. Naturally, it finds the band delivering the patented, high-speed grafting of neo-classical melodies, old school death and NWOBHM-inspired guitar twinning - often referred to as the "Gothenburg sound," after the Scandinavian city in which many of them grew up – that firmly cemented 1995 landmark release, Slaughter of the Soul, into the heavy metal hall of fame.

Some 30 years into their career, however, The Nightmare of Being is perhaps At the Gates' most ambitious offering yet, emboldening that foundation with high-contrast elements of symphonic black metal (“Touched by the White Hands of Death”), decidedly chewier desert rock grooving ("Cosmic Pessimism”) and even moody, saxophone-wailing prog rock (“Garden of Cyrus").