Right now, the Swedish death metal titans At The Gates are having a truly great second act. After breaking up in 1996 and reuniting in 2007, At The Gates have followed their all-time classic Slaughter Of The Soul with two more albums, 2014’s At War With Reality and 2018’s To Drink From The Night Itself. Both of them whip ass. This summer, the band will return with a new LP called The Nightmare Of Being. From all available evidence, this one is about to whip a whole lot of ass, too.

At The Gates have already shared the Nightmare Of Being lead single “Spectre Of Extinction,” and now they’ve dropped a video for another new banger called “The Paradox.” It’s a fast, guttural ripper with a whole lot of deeply satisfying riffage and a few ominous tones that sound like choirs gasping. In director Patric Ullaeus’ video, the band plays amidst rockslides and mushroom clouds and what appears to be the arrival of a reaper. Check it out below.

In a press release, frontman Tomas Lindberg Redant says:

Humanity is the biggest paradox. We as humans always want justification for the big things: death, the meaning of life, etc. Our knowledge of being mortals drives us away from being human, hence the paradox. We invent defense mechanisms to protect us from the thought of death, religion, different isms, etc.

This first time our producer Jens Bogren heard this song, he said “This is a monster!”. It touches on some core parts of the At The Gates sound, but builds further, on top of that, some classic NWOBHM/Mercyful Fate vibes thrown in for good measure. It is a death metal song, but has its progressive moments. Enjoy!

This was a very fun video to record, as we tried to create most of the “special effects” in an analog way, and not just to be added in the editing. Hence we were drenched in tons of crushed coal and soil, which took over a week and a lot of showers to get out of our hair, haha. We really wanted an oppressive, apocalyptic emotion for this video. And Patric Ullaeus, being the master that he is, went all the way to make that happen!

The Nightmare Of Being is out 7/2 on Century Media.