Disfear
Live the Storm
Relapse
We now interrupt your regularly scheduled At the Gates reunion for a kinder, gentler Tomas Lindberg?
When the reunited At the Gates take the stage for a handful of Euro fest appearances in summer ’08, nobody’s sure yet how it’s going to be, but we can make a few educated guesses: “Blinded by Fear” is probably going to be their set opener; the early stuff (note to poseurs—there’s early stuff) will most likely be relegated to a token song or two, even though refusing to acknowledge Slaughter of the Soul and only playing stuff from the Peaceville era would be just about THE greatest clowning in metal history; and they’re gonna clean up on merch alone. One thing that’s definite is, for all of ATG’s catchy melodies, Tomas Lindberg is going to be singing some pretty grim shit about “22 years of pain” and “suicidal final art” and all that. But while everyone’s still all “OMG!” about ATG, Tompa is pulling off a neat trick by releasing what may be the most positive album he’s ever been a part of: Disfear’s Live the Storm.
Don’t worry, they haven’t traded the D-beats and Tragedy shirts for Uniform Choice riffs and Airwalks. They have added Uffe Cederlund of Entombed on second guitar, yet this new one doesn’t take a single step closer to death metal. If anything, it’s even more “rock” than Misanthropic Generation, cutting the Dis-core with Motörhead/Zeke rips, quick-but-flashy leads and beer-hoisting singalongs—you know, things that are actually fun to listen to. OK, it’s not exactly all smiles: “The Furnace” drops the tempo just enough to be menacing, and “Testament” borrows a bit of atmosphere from Converge (whose Kurt Ballou recorded everything nice and thick and clear). Still, once “Testament” gets going, it’s all cries of “We are the revolution!” and gang vocals on the chorus.
Cederlund gets to peel off some frenetic soloing on the atypically lengthy closer “Phantom,” while the guys who weren’t in big famous Swedish death metal bands—that’d be the rhythm section of Henke Frykman and Marcus Andersson, and Björn Peterson, who was handling all the riffing by his lonesome before Uffe joined up—hold it down in proud Swedish dun-dat-dundun-dat style à la Victims, Wolfbrigade and Lindberg’s previous punk outlet Skitsystem. (Or see the way-raging Severed Head of State for an American analogue.) But where D-beat is usually so grim and weighed down with despair, Live the Storm comes off like a rallying cry. If it’s not as enduring as At the Gates (or Entombed…or hell, Discharge), it’s still way more entertaining than anything that new-jacks are doing with their riffs today. —Anthony Bartkewicz
