Slaughter of the Soul 

The third best metal album ever made (after The Gallery and The Jester Race), recorded by now-defunct metal band At The Gates in 1995 (coincidentally the same year as the two aforementioned albums). Tomas Lindberg's unrestrained fury brutalizes the listener while the Bjorler twins, Martin Larsson, and Adrian Erlandsson play the tightest, most concisely powerful metal in history.

The album's best point, the lyrics, track man's gradual existential descent from fear and nausea to eventual death, with each song more decayed and despairing than the next. Quotes from W.S. Burroughs and Luke Rhinehart, among others, further illustrate the existential and philosophical points the band is making, while lines such as "A world drenched in the blood of the innocent," and "Jaws locked around your spine" drive the point home like a sledgehammer. The origin, nature, and effects of evil is a secondary theme also explored extensively in the album's lyrics. Even though they are readable by themselves, the lyrics go much better with the punishing metal sound and composition At The Gates set them to.

Man 1: You got existential philosophy in my death metal!
Man 2: You got death metal in my existential philosophy!
Announcer: Two great tastes go together in At The Gates's Slaughter of the Soul.

Slaughter of the Soul by Stand Ablaze September 29, 2005