“Spectre Of Extinction” marks the first single released from At The Gates’ upcoming album, The Nightmare Of Being. The Swedish metal outfit released a stunning new video for the single with the help of director Patric Ullaetus.

Blurry and slightly grainy footage opens the video in silence. The lovely guitar picking commences as an image of a person slowly comes into focus. Electric guitar impactfully begins as the image of stars appears behind the blurry figure. Different images of starry skies pass by, and as the music intensifies, the band members appear in similar vintage-like cinematography with cityscape images flickering throughout.

Frontman Thomas Lindberg Redant’s metal vocals commence with the words “Our will, impersonal, blind / A gulf at the heart of the world / Dark as the absence of light / Death as the absence of all life,” atop shadowy footage of the members of the band, with the speckles of a film camera layered in front. The song’s dark and apocalyptic tone paints a surreal picture of extinction and consistently contains the intimidating lyrics, “The reverence and the fall / The purity of our cage.”

The Nightmare Of Being was announced by the band earlier in April, though it was revealed that the death metal outfit were working on the project in October 2020. At the gates also demoed eight songs in May last year.

Lindburg is also to release an album this fall as part of the supergroup Lock Up, which also includes Adam Jarvis, the drummer from Pig Destroyer.

Photo credit: Ekaterina Gorbacheva