Wednesday 13 November 2019

ALBUM REVIEW: Gatecreeper, "Deserted"


By: Garrett A. Tanner


Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 04/10/2019
Label: Relapse Records





Deserted” CD//LP Track listing:

1. Deserted
2. Puncture Wounds  
3. From the Ashes              
4. Ruthless                            
5. Everlasting                                       
6. Barbaric Pleasures        
7. Sweltering Madness     
8. Boiled Over
9. In Chains
10. Absence of Light


The Review:

What happens when you have an amazing band that dropped an amazing record, they set about work on another record? You have high expectations. What happens when the band proceeds to smash those expectations in a million beautiful pieces to become one with the sand? Sonic euphoria. 

Holy Bolt Thrower Batman, does Gatecreeper achieve this and then some, with “Deserted”!

Sonoran Depravation was such a blisteringly beautiful offering to the world that when word finally came about on a new release, the hype train began to charge full-steam ahead. The speeding locomotive never stopped, as Gatecreeper stoked the fires to 88mph, and transcended to a whole other dimensional timeline of metal magnitude. The whole album is on the same level of mind-bending inanity as anything by Tomb Mold or Triptykon. Gatecreeper unloads a blitzkrieg of riffs that rip open the mind like a bunker buster smashing into its target, and not giving one iota about defenses. Everything is just ripped apart and reduced to hot shrapnel in the sonic blast. 

Gatecreeper’s Deserted” delivers from top to bottom, but there are specific awe inspiring points of brutal intensity. “Puncture Wounds” is the second track on the album that is preceded by a glorious invitingly bleak opening in “Deserted”. However, where the riffs pierce the ground and explode into a riff factory of hellish design is track two. These are grooves Bolt Thrower would approve of, and in many ways have that punishing feel that The IVth Crusade” has. The album chugs along with spine shattering heaviness until “Ruthless” unloads a magazine full of rapid-firing picking into the ears of the listeners and assaulting the listener into a mesmerized sense of awe. After one’s body is left riddle to the bone, the onslaught continues. 

Deserted” culminates with “In Chains” and “Absence of Light”. Not say that the album does not have philosophical inclinations, but Gatecreeper poured out the depths of existential dread in complete isolation to end the album. This is not just any means of isolation either, as the portents of both tracks fall into the realm of absurdity that Søren Kierkegaard resides in. The sacrifices we make to better uplift ourselves act oppositely and shackle us in servitude be it to our minds, or dogmas, material things, or those around us. They leave us a psychologically and emotionally deserted before us, and we do not realize until it is too late. 

Deserted” is available HERE




Band info: bandcamp || facebook