Gardens of Grief EP, 1991

"There has always been a sense of artiness to At the Gates, which manifests itself in their cover artworks and in the structure of their music. Their first couple of releases were so complex, that some of the musicians who have worked with the band admitted that they had to take a lot of notes to keep up, and even their later, simpler melodic death metal releases, still contain a number of unexpected twists and turns.

The songs on "Gardens of Grief" are complex - too complex. Now, I like complex rock music, and I'm a big fan of progressive music, but complex music requires a sufficiant level of musicianship... and that's simply not there on this album. So, while there are plenty of good ideas here, one the whole, "Gardens of Grief" seems like a terrible musical mess, unstructured, incoherent and poorly executed. Then again, I admire the At the Gates guys for writing music that really challenged and tested themselves.

Another problem is poor production. There are times when the snare drum (especially in blast beat sections) is completely inaudible. And that's a shame, because, had the production been better, the album as a whole could have come across as being more coherent and solid.

(review originally posted on metalmusicarchives.com)"