At The Gates – DVD Screening
15 January 2010
Soho Screening Rooms, London

In late 2007, following much rumour, Swedish legends At The Gates announced plans to reunite for a proper farewell tour in 2008. The band had been active from 1990 to 1996 and throughout that time guitarist Anders Björler had taken footage of the band on a hand held camcorder. Together with unearthed footage of the early roots of the band and an abundance of photographs, Björler had a unique wealth of material from which to put together a documentary of the entire history of At The Gates.

Björler two and a half year project will finally see the light of day this year in a triple DVD package which should have all fans of the band salivating. Full details of The Flames Of The End package appear at the bottom of this article, but in brief it contains the documentary, a live set from the reunion tour from Wacken Open Air and a disc a rare and archive live performances from throughout the band’s existence.

Today’s screening was for the documentary, hosted by Earache Records with special guests Anders Björler and his former bandmate, drummer Adrian Erlandsson.

Settling in for 2 hours of Swedish Death Metal with a few cans courtesy of Earache, this was a fascinating account and brutally honest look at the story of At The Gates. Starting all the way back when the band members were in high school, we follow the story as Tomas Lindberg forms Grotesque and the subsequent birth of At The Gates. The documentary runs in chronological order through each of the band’s releases whilst cleverly adding related footage from the 2008 reunion tour. All members of the band are interviewed and whilst some band documentaries can focus heavily on a band’s current line-up and over emphasise their achievements, all those involved in the At The Gates story are given their dues. The incites from original guitarist Alf Svensson were particularly interesting and it was great to hear he was invited to take part in the reunion. However, it obviously pained him that his playing nor schedule would allow him to take part.

Whilst there are many amusing moments through the film, it also shows how unglamorous and tough being in a band can be. From having to share one transit van with My Dying Bride for their first European tour having totalled the second van, to having all the tour funding stolen on a later UK tour. It was actually a stark reminder of how big At The Gates actually “weren’t” when they split in 1996. You can empathise with Björler’s decision to call it a day but also ponder over what might have been had the band taken a break, which Tomas Lindberg suggests with hindsight may have been enough to keep the band together.

Much of the accolades have come after At The Gates split and with a wealth of bands taking influence from particularly the seminal Slaughter Of The Soul album, you can fully see why the band felt the need to close things properly with the 2008 tour.

I caught a few quick words with Björler after the showing and afraid to say he’s true to his word that the itch has now been scratched and The Flames Of The End does represent the closing chapter of At The Gates. I commended Björler on an excellent film and he told me it was something he wanted to do more of. He is working on a tour documentary for his current band The Haunted but his desire is to do something weightier, to which he grinned and said “like Iraq!”.

The Flames Of The End is due out on 22 February 2010 in Europe and 6 April 2010 in the U.S.A. and based on the documentary disc alone I can heartily recommend it.

Many thanks to Talita and the team at Earache Records.

The Flames Of The End (Earache Records)
Deluxe six-panel DVD digipak with a 40-page colour booklet
Three-disc DVD set
February 22 in Europe; April 6 in the U.S.

Disc 1: Under A Serpent Sun - The Story of At The Gates
A brand new documentary with a running time of over two hours, detailing the band’s entire career with exclusive interviews and footage, filmed and directed by guitarist Anders Björler.

01. Introduction & Opening Titles
02. Reunion: From Vision to Reality
03. The Early Years Part 1: From Nursery Rhymes to Death Metal
04. The Early Years Part 2: The Schillerska / Billdal Connection
05. The Early Years Part 3: The Grotesque / At the Gates Transition
06. The Early Years Part 4: Creativity Unbound
07. Gardens of Grief
08. The Red in the Sky is Ours
09. Reunion: Sweden Rock 2008
10. With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness
11. Exit Alf - Enter Martin
12. Reunion: Graspop 2008
13. Terminal Spirit Disease
14. Reunion: Ruis Rock 2008
15. Slaughter of the Soul
16. Reunion: America re-visited
17. Reunion: San Antonio, TX 2008
18. Exit Anders
19. Reunion: Bloodstock 2008
20. Reunion: The Past is Alive
21. Beyond the Gates
22. Credits
23. Interview with Tomas in Chicago 1996 (Deleted Scenes)
24. Adrian, The Prankster (Deleted Scenes)
25. The Tokyo Experience (Deleted Scenes)
26. Elvis Has Left the Building (Deleted Scenes)
27. European Mini-Tour with Therion 1992 (Deleted Scenes)
28. Gods of Metal, Italy 2008 (Deleted Scenes)
29. Tompa cleaning out the trailer (Deleted Scenes)
30. Kingdom Gone (Music Video)
31. The Burning Darkness (Music Video)
32. Terminal Spirit Disease (Music Video)
33. Blinded By Fear (Music Video)

Disc 2: Purgatory Unleashed - Live at Wacken
A 75-minute live set from the band’s reunion set at the Wacken Open air festival in 2008 in front of 100,000 people — professionally shot with multiple cameras with sound mixed by Tue Madsen

01. Intro (backstage)
02. Slaughter of the Soul
03. Cold
04. Terminal Spirit Disease
05. Raped By the Light of Christ
06. Under A Serpent Sun
07. Windows
08. World Of Lies
09. The Burning Darkness
10. The Swarm
11. Forever Blind
12. Nausea
13. The Beautiful Wound
14. Unto Others
15. All Life Ends
16. Need
17. Blinded By Fear
18. Suicide Nation
19. Kingdom Gone

Disc 3: Only the Dead Are Smiling
26 rare and archive live performances of the band playing in locations around the globe from 1991 to 2008.

01. Slaughter of the Soul (Wetlands, New York, USA March 7, 1996)
02. Cold (Wetlands, New York, USA March 7, 1996)
03. The Swarm (Wetlands, New York, USA March 7, 1996)
04. Blinded by Fear (Thirsty Whale, Rivergrove, IL, USA, March 10 1996)
05. Suicide Nation (Thirsty Whale, Rivergrove, IL, USA, March 10, 1996)
06. Under a Serpent Sun (Thirsty Whale, Rivergrove, IL, USA, March 1996)
07. Suicide Nation (Ruisrock, Turku, Finland, July 4, 2008)
08. Raped by the Light of Christ (Ruisrock, Turku, Finland, July 4, 2008)
09. Windows (Ruisrock, Turku, Finland, July 4, 2008)
10. World of Lies (Ruisrock, Turku, Finland, July 4, 2008)
11. Nausea (Ruisrock, Turku, Finland, July 4, 2008)
12. Slaughter of the Soul (Graspop, Dessel, Belgium, June 29, 2008)
13. Cold (Graspop, Dessel, Belgium, June 29, 2008)
14. Terminal Spirit Disease (Graspop, Dessel, Belgium, June 29, 2008)
15. The Beautiful Wound (Graspop, Dessel, Belgium, June 29, 2008)
16. The Burning Darkness (Witchwood, Manchester UK, Feb 5, 1996)
17. Through Gardens of Grief (Factory, Eskilstuna, Sweden, Apr 20 1991)
18. All Life Ends (Factory, Eskilstuna, Sweden, April 20, 1991)
19. City of Screaming Statues (Factory, Eskilstuna, Swe, Apr 20, 1991)
20. Slaughter of the Soul (Studio Coast, Tokyo, Japan, May 11, 2008)
21. Cold (Studio Coast, Tokyo, Japan, May 11, 2008)
22. Under a Serpent Sun (Studio Coast, Tokyo, Japan, May 11, 2008)
23. Slaughter of the Soul (Irving Plaza, New York, USA, July 9, 2008)
24. Need (The Abyss, Houston, TX, USA, March 17, 1996)
25. Neverwhere (Gagarin 205, Athens, Greece, September 21, 2008)
26. Kingdom Gone (Gagarin 205, Athens, Greece, September 21, 2008)


LINKS:
At The Gates
Earache Records