...SIŁA I PIĘKNO MUZYKI TKWIĄ W JEJ RÓŻNORODNOŚCI..


..::OPIS::..

12 czerwca br. Relapse Records wydała debiutancką Epkę zespołu Living Gate, która nosi tytuł Deathlust. Materiał na niej zawarty to stuprocentowy death metal starej amerykańskiej szkoły i nic jakby w tym zaskakującego, że Relapse stawia tu swoje logo. Sama muzyka to też raczej rzecz mało zaskakująca, zastanawiająca natomiast jest informacja, iż Living Gate to zespół złożony z członków zespołów Amenra, Yob, Oathbreaker i Norska. Co jak co, ale po muzykach, których macierzyste kapele lawirują w raczej ezoterycznych dźwiękach, takiego obrotu sprawy się bym nie spodziewał.

Nie zmienia to jednak faktu, że Living Gate stał się rzeczywistością, a Deathlust orze mózg bardzo intensywnie. Jak się można spodziewać, Epka pomimo że utrzymana jest w stricte death metalowym rejonie, to posiada mały pierwiastek spaczenia i iście złowieszczy klimat. Członkowie kapeli w macierzystych zespołach grają może przystępniej, lecz nadal ciężko, mrocznie i to jest także punkt zbiorczy z LG. Krążek jest bardzo „ocieniony”, pełźnie gdzieś w mroku, za rogiem kryjąc swój obrzydliwy łeb poza zasięgiem zmysłów niczym potwory mitologii Lovecrafta, starając się doprowadzić umysł do szaleństwa.

Pięć kompozycji łączących się w Deathlust, swój mrok zasysa z klasyki florydzkiego metalu, mieszając w sobie chaotyczny styl Immolation, ciężar Incantation z odrobiną nowej\starej szkoły (kapele typu Outher Heaven, Creeping Death czy Tomb Mold, które kroczą podobnymi ścieżkami). Jest ciężko, brutalnie, w umiarkowanych tempach, a większość riffów unika wysokich dźwięków bardzo skutecznie. Jest to dla mego ucha atrakcyjny sposób tworzenia metalu, ale przyznaję także, że takie podejście tworzy ryzyko, iż pełny krążek może okazać się za mało urozmaicony. Możliwe, że są to niepotrzebne obawy i LG bez problemów nagra morderczy debiut, ale na dzień dzisiejszy osiemnaście minut trwania Ep wydaje się czasem idealnym, by utrzymać słuchacza w czujności i nie powodować przesytu. Jednocześnie bardzo bym nie chciał, żeby muzycy zrezygnowali z intensywności na rzecz większej ilości upiększaczy. Co przyniesie debiut mam nadzieję wyjaśni się w niedalekiej przyszłości, a na dziś zostawiam solidne cztery z plusem, czyli w skali KVLT wypada na 6.5.

Brzeźnicki


Oh man! Have the last few years been good to me. The death metal resurgence is in full swing and the giant goat headed monstrosity of modern music is spewing out new music from every orifice onto a willing and welcoming audience. Within the revival old school death metal has exploded with groups like Gatecreeper, Tomb Mold, Spectral Voice and Frozen Soul getting lots of coverage across the metal universe. So chin up folks, staple your eyes open, spread your arms wide…and accept a new offering from the monstrosity in the form of the debut EP from Living Gate titled Deathlust, ready to crush all around it and cloak the world in its formidable darkness on the 12th June.

Featuring members from esteemed groups such as Yob, Oathbreaker, Amenra and Wiegedood there is some serious pedigree associated to this record. I’m a fan of all the member’s respective groups. Couple that with this being released via the mighty Relapse Records, well you’ve got a tubby bloke from the Cotswolds very excited and eager to get his grubby mitts it. First things first, the artwork….Shoggoth Kinetics take a bow, you killed it. It’s got that perfect death metal record look, a pile of mutated corpses and alienesque masses, all in black and white with a big red logo. Perfect!

The record kicks of quicker and harder than a Zinedine Zidane head-butt to the chest with The Delusion Of Consciousness, starting with this slamming riff that’s just eviscerating. The drums are raw, the bass tone is filthy, and I can hear it in the mix which is a bonus. The slamming riff is accompanied by bellowing growls, before Living Gate up the ante with the introduction of some blasts alongside some knuckle dragging riffs, and those vocals change to this wretched howl that is just heinous.

The opening track screams influence from Suffocation, Demilich and Death but this is no tribute band. It’s got its own spin on the classic sound taking it in a more brutal direction, which just kills. It’s straight up destruction. It appears to finish abruptly before surprising me with this thirty second chunk of harmonious guitar licks reminiscent of Chuck Schuldiner himself.

The next track Roped is notably slower in tempo but still just as heavy. It builds into this mid paced blast fest featuring loads of guttural vocals, china work and a few pick scrapes thrown in for good measure. Living Gate then tear you apart with these scathing dual vocals, a mixture of the gutturals bouncing off anguished screams. It’s punishing but sounds great. The record continues with riff after riff of crushing death metal madness with title track Deathlust and the swarming destruction of Heaven Ablaze which keeps up the pummelling pace. Aside from the slight change of pace in Roped, this record does not let up in its brutality.

Final track, named after the band, Living Gate is the pick of the bunch, with melodic guitar lines sat in between the usual solid crushing riffage and destructive drums. It’s a nice change of sound compared to the first four tracks. It’s the one that drew me in the most as it chops and changes while still keeping the sound built earlier within the record.

It’s where Living Gate shows the sounds the individual members bought to the fold, which was one of the things I was most excited about with this EP. The track winds down with a slowed down solo that really stands out, before all the musicians are completely drowned out by a dissonant and overbearing noise. It then breaks away, leaving us with some light guitar work that is creepy and a fine way to finish the EP.

To sum up Deathlust is a great EP. I love how aggressive the sound is and how there is no fucking about. Its five tracks of madness that had me hooked from start to finish. Highlights were the dual vocals that just complement each other really well and the drum work is ace.

The only criticism I have is the production is a little light, with all of that destruction and heaviness I was hoping for a thicker sound. It doesn’t detract from the performance or the quality of the EP overall. I think this is going to get a lot of people talking and I look forward to a full length from this project.

Matt Alexander


If you have paid any attention to the past few years of extreme metal one thing will have become immediately self-evident. Death metal is back. A genre that had stagnated for years, except for at its most curious fringes (and not in the good way, as per death metal visual parlance), had simply run its course. It’s not an overstatement that a great many critics and even once rabid fans of the genre had all but written it off. The blood had coagulated; reanimation of the flesh had failed, and it had turned to dust.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the scene has exploded again. There is suddenly an incredible depth to the death metal genre. There’s a greater quantity – and quality – of those fringe acts doing weird and wonderful things with the blueprint, be that imbuing the sound with new elements to create Frankenstein’s monster-esque new entities or other bands co-opting the veins of death metal into their sound, making them kin to the genre, if not wholly fitting the term and the aesthetic.

One thing death metal had never been wanting for was a plethora of acts mimicking the greats that had gone before. It was exactly this, for the most part, that had led to the feeling the genre had simply run out of ideas, or, more the point, had maybe not had that many ideas in the first place. After all, classic death metal isn’t exactly known for its subtlety. As subtle as a brick to the face. But in this new renaissance of death metal, a large contributing factor to its success and it being celebrated is bands doing exactly this – using the building blocks of the genre once again.

The major difference this time is that they aren’t mimicking the sound or paying some kind of ‘pub-rock’ version of a tribute act any longer. These are bands who are performing an autopsy on the genre – taking a look into the viscera that makes it tick, makes it work in all its unholy ways – and then using that knowledge to reinvent classic death metal. This isn’t an ode to the (undead) fallen, but, rather, is the occult prayer to create new legion. New death metal bands who measure up to the founding fathers – call it reincarnation, call it necromancy if you will – but all I know is that it’s most welcome. Time to take that bath in blood. Hail Satan.

Into this brave evil new world, come Living Gate. The band certainly have strong credentials, with a member from Yob and a trio surrounding him from Belgium’s Church of Ra – taking in contributors from Amenra, Oathbreaker and Wiegedood. Perhaps the latter is the lynchpin to proving these excellent musicians had the chops to take on the classic death metal sound. Wiegedood have, over the course of three ever greater records, proven post-metal savants could master the vagaries of black metal. The same is true on this, Living Gate’s debut EP, Deathlust. Five tracks of unbridled hell released with the backing of Relapse Records, proving their reverence for and living sacrifice to the genre.

Living Gate produce death metal so tight its decaying flesh is bound together by barbed wire. The average song is roughly three and a half minutes, but do not fear, there are no pop ditties here. Unless this is the sound of the charts in Hell…? I’d be down for that.

Fans of Suffocation and Demilich should take note – this one goes out to you. Ferocious doesn’t quite capture it, with ‘The Delusion of Consciousness’ kicking things off in rabid style, and the horror never lets up from there. ‘Roped’ may take the pace down, but the guitars become all the more malevolent, with each change of riff feeling like a knife in the eye. ‘Deathlust’, from which the EP takes its name, is the most frenzied of the quintet, ripping and tearing at the constrains of the sonic realm it finds itself in, and nodding toward Morbid Angel, too. ‘Heaven Ablaze’ belches forth its rare cocktail of poison while the musicians take their proverbial bow as the sheer technical proficiency and execution of their craft becomes ever more apparent. Finishing up their amoral sermon is the eponymous ‘Living Gate’, a track that pummels and screams at the void like those that have gone before, but also showcases an ongoing intelligence in the songwriting and direction of the band, even if the brain that holds it is itself liquifying, weeping out of every orifice.

Deathlust is brutal, yes, but it is the intensity with which the five tracks are delivered that marks the release out for special note, and its superlative production is certainly responsible for that as well as the craft of the songs within. With a burgeoning, braying pack of death metal bands leading the undead charge for your attention and wallet, only those with complete mastery of their sickening art can climb the mountain of corpses to the top. Living Gate certainly had the constituent parts to pull this off, but it was by no means guaranteed. But this EP will immediately put pay to any doubters. Let us hope that they are encouraged to conjure more foul sounds from the pit, and not become a well-regarded, short-lived project. Meet you at the gate when the clock strikes thirteen – the living gate...

Chris Keith-Wright



..::TRACK-LIST::..

1. The Delusion Of Consciousness 03:31
2. Roped 03:35
3. Deathlust 02:28
4. Heaven Ablaze 03:35
5. Living Gate 04:37



..::OBSADA::..

Aaron Rieseberg - Bass
Wim Sreppoc - Drums
Lennart Bossu - Guitars
Levy Seynaeve - Guitars, Vocals




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_KjXOCDiPQ



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