AT THE GATES: 'At War With Reality' Lands On U.S. Chart

"At War With Reality", the comeback album from seminal Swedish metallers AT THE GATES, sold 7,700 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 53 on The Billboard 200 chart. Released on October 28 (one day earlier internationally) via Century Media, the CD was recorded at Studio Fredman in Gothenburg and was mixed at Fascination Street Studios in Örebro, Sweden with Jens Bogren (OPETH, KATATONIA, SOILWORK, PARADISE LOST, KREATOR). The cover artwork for the effort was designed by Costin Chioreanu, who has previously also worked with bands such as ARCH ENEMY, MORGOTH and DARKTHRONE. Chioreanu gave the strong lyrical theme of "At War With Reality" an outstanding conceptual togetherness with the visuals he crafted for this project.

"At War With Reality" track listing

01. El Altar Del Dios Desconocido
02. Death And The Labyrinth
03. At War With Reality
04. The Circular Ruins
05. Heroes And Tombs
06. The Conspiracy Of The Blind
07. Order From Chaos
08. The Book Of Sand (The Abomination)
09. The Head Of The Hydra
10. City Of Mirrors
11. Eater Of Gods
12. Upon Pillars Of Dust
13. The Night Eternal

The "Death And The Labyrinth" video was helmed by Swedish director Patric Ullaeus of the Revolver Film Company AB, who has previously worked with HAMMERFALL, DIMMU BORGIR, EUROPE, LACUNA COIL and IN FLAMES, among many others.

Tomas recently told Horns Up Rocks! abour the writing and recording process for "At War With Reality": "We've been very, very meticulous with this one. With the writing process, it went through a thousand different filters before we actually said that we were finished with the writing. But, you know, the way we did it — like, we didn't announce that we were doing a new record until we had all the material, so we actually wrote in secrecy, so we weren't stressed about what other people might think or how they would react. So we actually had an idea that anything goes — we should try anything that comes into our heads, but also anything could be thrown away. So it's lot of 'kill your darlings' — everybody has to agree about everything that was recorded. And that takes a lot of time. But if you have a positive, creative vibe where everybody is willing to sacrifice their favorite parts, or whatever, to make the best compromise, you will come up with a great album, if you take your time… That's where the maturity comes in. Back in [our] early 20s, it's your way or the highway, whereas now, it's actually [more] important for me that everybody else is happy than I'm happy. It's a totally different vibe when we do this now."

Regarding the "At War With Reality" title, Tomas said: "It's actually an old title that Martin [Larsson, guitar] had been fooling around [with] back in the '90s. And when the idea of the album came up and I started writing lyrics, I actually remembered that title and felt that it could be a good starting point for the concept of the record. So that's why we used it."