Recently renovated classic venue Irving Plaza in New York City is the scene for the finale of the US leg of At The Gates most popular album, Slaughter of the Soul. Enforced opened the night. They’re an interesting group to me. They sound like a mix of Death Metal/Thrash with a some hardcore-tinged vocals. Whatever they’re going for, it’s working for them. I dig it. 

Next, modern old-school inspired crossover thrashers, Municipal Waste came in hot, with their straight to the point songs. Almost twenty bangers played in all in the short set! Thankfully nothing is too long and the energy levels are so high, you forget your brain got electrified.

When At The Gates took the stage, they hit us with basically two sets. They opened with a slew of songs such as opener “Spectre of Extinction” to my personal favorite, “The Swarm.” With other selections from At War With Reality, To Drink From The Night Itself, The Nightmare of Being to Armed  with fill-in guitarist Dan Martinez of Atheist fame (Editor’s note: The band recently welcomed back Anders Bjorler, read about it here).

Next they went into the metal scraping intro of “Blinded by Fear” from Slaughter of The Soul. Playing the entire album front to back, they wrapped the evening with “The Night Enteral.” The way this song  ends from each member of the band slowly dropping out until,  you are only left with the bass is simply sonic perfection.

At The Gates just played with a fury of a band with something to prove. Celebrating their past while championing their future. The band will next perform at Damnation Festival 2022 in Manchester, UK next month. 

Buy At The Gates merch and music here. 

WORDS AND PHOTOS BY OMAR CORDY