Terminal Spirit Disease - At The Gates

"Kill the worm that is depression My fevered - circle of damnation Consumed by this torment divine" Following the excellent 'With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness' (1993), At The Gates return with similar offering 'Terminal Spirit Disease', one of the finest melodic death metal albums of all time. Whilst the album is really more of an EP, with three live tracks from previous albums tacked on the end, it makes up for this with the blinding quality of the material. The album starts with mournful twin violins giving way to melodic guitars and retains the flow evidenced on the previous album throughout, with faster sections of ...  Read the complete review

More of an E.P. than an album, clocking in at thirty-five minutes even when bulked out by three live songs at the end, this can't help but be seen as a warm-up to 'Slaughter of the Soul' when viewed in a historical context, due to the latter album's mistaken acclaim. The change in style from the previous album is striking, as this is far more simplified and cleanly produced to the extent that it mostly sounds like an entirely different death metal band, apart from the slower 'The Fevered Circle' that harks back to the melancholic style of the debut, and of course the live songs from earlier in the band's career that prove how much better or worse they used to sound, ...  Read the complete review