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At War with Reality Image
Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.4

Universal acclaim- based on 5 Ratings

  • Summary: The Swedish death metal band releases its first studio album since 1995's Slaughter Of The Soul.
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Top Track

Death and the Labyrinth
Behind the curtain make you release Once you have entered the labyrinth With everyone gone The world is ours And as we fade I kill the joy Im goin in... See the rest of the song lyrics
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 7
  2. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. Nov 7, 2014
    100
    The impressive thing about the return of the progenitors of Swedish melo-death isn't the time elapsed since their last album; rather, it's how much it sounds like none has.
  2. Kerrang!
    Nov 7, 2014
    80
    This is classic ATG with freshness and vigour to spare. [25 Oct 2014, p.54]
  3. Nov 7, 2014
    80
    Occupying a middle-ground between the thrashy, riff-a-minute assault of ’95 and the Gothenburg band’s earlier, darkly atmospheric releases, these 13 tracks form a cohesive and consistently evocative whole.
  4. 80
    This record will never have the far-reaching influence that Slaughter of the Soul had (honestly, no extreme metal record probably ever will again,) but that doesn’t make it any less of a headbanging and invisible orange-grasping good time.
  5. 70
    As great as At War With Reality really is, it is nothing but expectations, and for a band that shattered preconceptions and spawned an absolutely unbearable number of copycat bands with their last album, that's actually a bit disappointing.
  6. Dec 3, 2014
    69
    At War With Reality is, above all else, an At the Gates album that feels like a pastiche of At the Gates. At least it’s a spirited one.
  7. Nov 7, 2014
    50
    The speed at which the songs are played sounds not only like they are stuck in the mud, but that the weight tethered to them is also dragging them backwards. The final result is an anemic, lackluster 52 minutes.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of
  2. Mixed: 0 out of
  3. Negative: 0 out of