Music can destroy souls, music can be depressing but still fascinating. GATEWAY, with their tenacious slowness and monotonous riffs, stir you up inside deeply and pull you down into lightless depths, no glimmer of hope reaches the barren, inhospitable environment and nihilistic darkness rules the world.
The four pieces radiate a monolithic, profound attraction, but one should not expect a brightening of the mood. It's as if the musicians want to create an antithesis to sentimental folk or good-humored punk – I can see nothing, but nothing at all in melodic harmony, choruses or hooklines to hold the listener through the darkness, only mean rattle and viscose riffs characterize the oppressive aura. Only sporadically fast eruptions loosen the bone-dry smoldering sound construct.
Party people and good-humor fetishists will take to the skies, but fans of Funeral Doom will drop into the brittle soundscapes and enjoy their stay in the dark gloom.