The Angry Scotsman One of the pillars of melodic death metal, this album is more intense then In Flames' "The Jester Race" or Dark Tranquility's "The Gallery". I suppose depending on how much "melodic" or "death metal" you like will determine which of the 3 is your favorite. This album is the most intense of the 3 by far, while TJR is the lightest, and "The Gallery" is a good middle ground, maybe with the best songwriting.

I personally like this one the best. It is a good blend of the two, but still maintains outright death metal intensity. Intense is what this album is. There are two completely melodic songs, and the rest are quite fast...maintained by lots of blast beats. The slower parts are often backed by double bass drumming even. The riffing is fast and frantic, though simple. This is what does make it more melodic then normal death metal.

The solos are also very melodic, opposed to shred, there are slower melodic sections, and even some non metal sections. Also, there is no growling on this album but instead a more high pitched, (kind of raspy) screaming. There is real emotion behind them. OK, a lot of metal heads cringe at the thought of emotional lyrics...but really a real power and intensity is conveyed behind them. At the end of "Cold" when he yells "I FEEL MY SOUL GO COLD!" try not to get shivers.

Call it death metal lite if you want. Fast paced, simple riffing pushed by straightforward and intense drumming and topped off with soul wrenching yelling. This album may sacrifice the complexity and technicality, (and maybe some brutality) of regular death metal...but it does not sacrifice intensity and has some great twin guitar work. Only real downside is there is not really a standout song, and at times it can be a bit uninspired sounding.

Overall, great album. My favorite of the 3 classic melodeath albums, and probably the best of the entire sub genre. Four and a Half Stars

Time Signature Slaughter of the ear...

Genre: melodic death metal

It is not a coincidence that several present-day melodeath artists have been accused of aping the sound and style on this album. "Slaughter of the Soul" is a very influential album and one of the releases that helped define the genre of melodic death metal, which is very popular in Sweden, Denmark (the entire underground metal scene in my hometown seems to evolve around this album) and around the world.

What I particularly like about this album is that it is more aggressive, more primitive and less polished than the likes of In Flames and other Swedish melodeath acts. The riffing is often fast, simple and straightforward making use of melodic patterns that are typically based on minor scales and 4/4 or 3/4 figures, and the nods to NWOBHM are very clear both in terms of riff types and guitar harmonies. The drumming is tight and simple (in a good way), although there are some interesting twists here and there. At The Gates make heavy use of simple thrash metal drum rhythms here, which add to the agrressiveness of this album, and which work well with the melodic riffing. The most striking thing is perhaps the screaming vocals, which display a certain desperation which fits with the content of the lyrics, which deal with topics such as fear, suffering, death and so on. On some tracks, like "Cold" the vocals sound so desperate that it sometimes touches me so much that I get chills and my eyes get watery. I never expected a death metal record to have that effect on me. But hey, that's the beauty of music, innit? Other notable tracks are the hit "Blinded By Fear", the title track, "under a Serpent Sun" and "Suicide Nation".

I think this album will appeal to anyone who likes thrash metal and power metal, and perhaps even some NWOBHM fans, as well as some death metal fans - although "Slaughter of the Soul" does not have much in common with other death metal releases from the 90s. I would also reccomend this album to those who like a bit of melody but think that In Flames and American melodic metalcore is too polished.