At The Gates
The Ghost Of A Future Dead
Although The Ghost Of A Future Dead wasn’t informed by Tomas Lindberg’s passing, it’s unquestionably been reshaped by it. Not with some newfound posthumous meaning, but simply through At The Gates knuckling down and giving it their best for the final product. Everything from the mixing to track sequencing to name and artwork has been preserved to meet Lindberg’s vision, which ultimately feels like the more sincere decision. What comes from that is not the best At The Gates album, but one that embodies a tenacity that prevailed right till the end.
If there is a judgement to be given this album, it’s best to do it under those parameters. Even if oral cancer weren’t a cloud hanging overhead, Slaughter Of The Soul is still melodeath’s magnum opus, left unfollowed up for nearly 20 years. Everything that At The Gates have done since their 2014 return has been good, but from the viewpoint of veterans looking to meaningfully continue their legacy. The Ghost Of A Future Dead sees not a laurel rested upon; At The Gates do have purpose here. The classic melodeath approach is still a hell of a sound for them, seldom coming across blemishes or loose ends. Slight deviations do occur—a smattering of black-metal thrown into Tomb Of Heaven and an opulent penultimate moment for the instrumental Förgängligheten—but they’re to enrich, not overshadow. Above all else, sticking to what they mastered proves just as valid as anything for At The Gates.
As for Lindberg, the deterioration in his voice is difficult to mask or ignore, which kind of feels like the point. It goes back to the tenacity mentioned earlier—even through odds that would turn out to be unbeatable, there’s almost a scrappiness belying this journey to the end. There’s also just a ‘truer’ death metal feel when they’re meted out this way. The likes of The Fever Mask and In Dark Distortion proudly land with rough, unkempt edges that are more than a little galvanising. It’s another point towards At The Gates drilling deeper into the sound they spearheaded rather than simply coast on its surface. Even if The Ghost Of A Future Dead is no revolutionary addition to the genre, it still proves worthwhile.
And given the events and statements that have surrounded the album since Lindberg’s passing, you’d imagine that At The Gates couldn’t ask for more. This is an album, first and foremost, assembled in their frontman’s memory, a task that’s paid off handsomely at each turn. The ethos is classic, tried-and-true At The Gates, worn with the spirit of the pioneers and perfecters that this whole branch of metal built itself around for the last three decades. Even if there’s uncertainty about what comes next, you can bet your bottom dollar that commitment will go unchanged.
For fans of: Carcass, The Haunted, Morbid Angel
‘The Ghost Of A Future Dead’ by At The Gates is out now on Century Media Records.
Death Lens
What’s Left Now?
Okay, this has to be the one for Death Lens, right? Because Cold World was really good and sadly didn’t blow them up, so it has to be this one, right? You’d hope so; they’d fit right in among Militarie Gun, Drug Church, PUP et al. If anything, What’s Left Now? is even more snug among that company, thanks to how much Death Lens appear to have cranked the tightness and tension up. Here’s an album brimming with punk’s sandpapered melodies, and the acumen to pull them off perfectly. Power is rough-and-tumble pop-punk; Waiting To Know is mid-tempo with teeth prominently bared; Useless blares out in what borders on slacker-rock. Even outliers like the emo-adjacent swirl of Am I A Drug To You and the quasi-industrial crackles of Saints In The Panic Room add some new, complementary shades to the palette.
The end result positively crackles all the way through, in no small part due to Death Lens themselves. On an album primarily concerned with surviving the constant war of attrition that is modern life, it only makes sense to accentuate the grit and nerve in the performance. Opener Monolith is a mission statement if there ever were one, where Bryan Torres is ground down from birth but is never rended of the wherewithal to stay standing. It’s the sort of sentiment that the best punk bands take to flawlessly, of which Death Lens can evidently count themselves among now. What’s Left Now? just has that fire in its belly, perpetuated by how deeply normal its creators are. With every sawing riff and thick, persistent bassline, that grounding feels obvious.
To top it off, there’s a phenomenal accessibility here. Just like many with whom Death Lens will inevitably rub shoulders with in turn, What’s Left Now? shape their angst into punchy punk gold, svelte and scrappy in equal measure. So with natural power, determination, an ear for an unshakable tune and not a bit of wasted space, it’s hard to see what’s not to adore. Death Lens are basically there, fully formed and waiting for the same volley into the wider consciousness as those who came before. If What’s Left Now? can’t do it, as comfortably their best work…look, let’s not think that way, okay? It will happen. It will.
For fans of: Drug Church, Militarie Gun, PUP
‘What’s Left Now?’ by Death Lens is out now on Epitaph Records.
goo
Oh Wow, Oh Well
With indie-punk changing hands to bands like goo, it feels like an encouraging step away from a healthy yet largely interchangeable era over the last decade. On the surface, Oh Wow, Oh Well may seem like just another limb of that, but goo do seem to venturing out a little more overall. The palette is simply wider, introduced from the very beginning with Payday smuggling in a riff that sounds uncannily like The Kinks’ All Day And All Of The Night. With the Thin Lizzy-esque wait capping Go!, a post-punk squall puncturing Auto-Mate, and a full-on shoegaze cut to end on with Balloons, rarely do goo appear to be going through the motions or lacking tangible drive.
It tends to work, too. Apart from the tempo changes of Go! landing a bit lopsidedly, Oh Wow, Oh Well doesn’t feel particularly unsure or ‘experimental’. The way it plays out is quite evidently indie-punk, but not as anodyne as the genre can sometimes be. Naturally, that lends some of the themes some more sauce, where Tanisha Badman puzzles through anxiety on Tsunami, apathy on Slow Morning, listless ageing on It’s My Birthday…sure does sound like one of these, doesn’t it? That might be true, but whether it’s a standout lyric (of which there are ample) or an ear-catching turn of style, goo are doing anything but circle the drain. Oh wow, indeed.
For fans of: CHROMA, False Advertising, Loose Articles
‘Oh Wow, Oh Well’ by goo is released on 1st May.
Words by Luke Nuttall
