At The Gates at Tsutaya O-East, May 29th 2018

Near the end of the show, Tomas Lindberg lead vocalist of At The Gates, asked the audience if they liked death metal. As expected the answer was a roaring approval from the crowd at the venue. In response Lindberg said “We At The Gates, we don’t like death metal…” He then turned his back and shrugged his shoulders. People in the audience reacted in disbelief, fainted heckles were heard. You know what’s next, closed fist in the air and Lindberg shouting at the mic: “we love death metal!”

Out of context this exchange might sound corny or cheesy, it was nothing but. Devoid of cynicism and irony, when it has the goods to back it up, like At the Gates does, a metal live show will provide you with a couple of hours of bliss. You just have to be in that moment. This concert was the perfect example of that.

That exchange was followed by a blistering rendition of Kingdom Come from their first album The Red in the Sky Is Ours, one of many goosebumps moments in the show. Goosebumps was the word Lindberg used to describe what the band felt while playing what’s probably their signature song, Blinded by Fear from the album Slaughter of the Soul. Borrowing a phrase from a coworker of mine, to the audience it felt like the whole place was lifted off the ground.

Tomas Lindberg is a hell of a frontman, a performer that gives it all on stage and looks like having fun while doing it. Besides his unique looks for metal (baseball cap) the man is full of energy during the show. Building rapport with the audience, running from one side of the stage to the other. Several times he mentioned that Tokyo was one of their favorite places to perform. He stroke some cool metal poses holding the mic stand and hyping the crowd. His vocals, goes without saying, are some of the best in extreme metal. Suicide Nation, which opened the show’s encore, is a perfect example. Listen to the demo version bonus track on the Slaughter of the Soul CD if you don’t believe me.

They played six tunes in total from that classic album, but this Tokyo show was also special for being the first one for their latest album tour, which meant we got to hear some world premieres. The band closed the main part of the concert with The Mirror Black, also the closer on To Drink From the Night Itself. This one and Daggers of Black Haze sounded a lot punchier live than on record. There are lots of mid-tempo tunes on the second half of their latest album, as a result their impact is diminished, lost in a sea of similar sounding tunes. But in a live setting the symphonic flourishes and ominous ambiance of these songs turn them into some of the most memorable instances of the show.

I wish their playing in A Stare Bound in Stone would’ve been tighter. The interactions between riffs, blast beats and vocals sounded loose on that one and not in a good way. I’m sure it’ll sound a lot better as the tour goes on. This was the first world premiere of the night, which opened with a recording of Der Widerstand segueing to a blistering rendition of the song that gave the title to the new album: To Drink From the Night Itself.

The show lasted an hour and a half. The opening bands played 30 minutes each. Hellchild and Survive did a good job setting up the atmosphere of the show, especially Survive with their thrash influenced sound and stage antics.

The anticipation people had when doors opened paid off. Everyone left in a good mood having witnessed Swedish death metal royalty. In my opinion, At The Gates did in Slaughter of the Soul what The Jesus & Mary Chain did in Psychocandy. They blended extreme sounds with melody, but unlike some of their successors and copycats, they kept it dark and menacing. It was good to confirm that in a live setting they not only reproduce this sound, they enhance it. 

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