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
