Blabbermouth has an excellent interview posted with guitarist Anders Bjorler of legendary Swedish metallers At The Gates, who yesterday announced they would be reuniting for a few one-off European festival performances in the Summer of 2008. In the interview, Bjorler sheds light on what got the band back together, why the timing was right, and shares his opinions on the legacy and influence of At the Gates. On the now famous Slaughter of the Soul:

Our goal was to write the Reign in Blood for the 90′s. At least try to do so, hehe… What we achieved was an album that was powerful, aggressive, melodic and to the point. The funny thing about “Gothenburg sound” is that I never heard the expression until At the Gates split up. I think I heard it around 1997/1998 when a couple of Swedish bands stated that they were influenced by what was happening in Gothenburg.

I think it’s a fair conclusion that Slaughter of the Soul is definitely in the running for the Reign in Blood of the ’90s. The only competition really could come from Pantera. We’re growing more excited by the hour about this reunion — should Axl and I just take a gamble and buy our airline tickets to Download 2008 now?

-VN