Album Review: Gateway's Self Titled

Gateway

Today, all the way from Belgium...

We have the self-titled debut of Gateway.

This is a solo project, just one fellow who handles all the stuff here...top to bottom.

That's an idea I never really had to do that, but I've always felt that personally I benefit from musical collaboration as I'm quite limited.

I suppose our new friend, and some old ones, feel quite liberated with being able to make the precise album they want to make.

This album comes from the label, Hellthrasher Productions, yes, in Europe. One of the coolest things about journey of mine is learning about all of these smaller labels....

I got nothin'.

Some folks call this death/doom metal, but I don't see it that way.

The guitars are fuzzy, well, the entire sound of the album is fuzzy. There were points on the record when I wondered if there was a blown speaker on his amps...maybe that's a new thing, like loud motorcycle pipes?

It's not just the guitars, but also the drums,. When the snare or toms sound, there's a feeling of spider veins of static that shoot out from all around.

This album has one of the most unique tempos I've ever heard.

The standard speed is about the same as the end of "Black Diamond" on Kiss's self-titled when it's just going. So. Darn. Slowly.

There are times when it moves more quickly or more slowly, but that's about the standard speed. It's heavy. It slow. It plods.

I had a thought on a song or two that there was no way this could get any slower than it is now, but it felt like a bet that they could even slow down more still.

Somehow they found a speed slower than decay and then switched into high-temp, for them, riffing which created a far more powerful switch up.

Gateway won't be for everybody, but every metalhead  needs to hear these guitars...

Release: 10/02/15
Genre: Doom Metal
Label: Hellthrasher Productions
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