UMUR "With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act At the Gates. The album was released through Deaf Records in May 1993, a little under a year after the release of the band´s debut full-length studio album "The Red in the Sky Is Ours" from July 1992. At the Gates formed in 1990 after Grotesque disbanded. They were part of the fertile Gothenburg scene of the early 90s, which also spawned artists like In Flames and Dark Tranquillity.

Stylistically the material on "With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness" continue the melodic death metal style of the debut album, but it´s generally a bit more streamlined and there are less musical experiments. It´s obvious the band have honed their songswriting craft and have gone for a more consistent musical style. The music features loads of melodic guitar work from the two guitarists, varied drumming, and the distinct sounding high pitched raw vocals by lead vocalist Tomas Lindberg in front. In those days he was a highly unusual sounding vocalist in a death metal act, which made At the Gates stand out from the pack.

"With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness" features a sound production which is as thin sounding as the sound production on the debut album. You would have thought that a better sounding production would have been a priority on a sophomore release, but overall the sound hasn´t improved much, and to my ears it´s a slight issue, which prevents me from enjoying the album as much as I probably could have. Lindberg´s vocals can also be a bit grating on the ears after a while, so it´s the intriguing songwriting ideas and the high level musicianship which are the greatest assets of the album. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

Time Signature Raped by the sound of guitars...

Genre: progressive death metal (melodeath inklings)

While "The Red In The Sky Is Ours" is perhaps a bit too abstract and complex for some listeners, "With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness" is a much more structured and solid effort. Also, on the previous releases, At the Gates' skills and musicianship were not really on par with the creative ideas they had, which means that their output seemed to have a certain pretentiousness to it.

That's all gone here. On "With Fear I kiss The Burning Darkness", their musicianship has improved considerably, and musically, the album is still abstract and complex like the predecessors are, but it is executed at a much higher level. The songs seem more coherent and less clumsy than on the preceding releases, which means that the high level of compositional complexity is much easier to appreciate. Also, already here, there are inklings of the melodic death metal style that At the Gates would adopt on their last releases. This combination of complexity and melody works very well for this album.

I think that fans of progressive death metal would like this album, as would fans of good ole straight death metal.