Atmosphere. The way metalheads use the word sends shivers down my spine and immediately, I associate it with lazy, repetitive writing and unnecessary amounts of reverb. Originally, this was a Black Metal phenomenon but it has begun to infest the unholy tombs where Death Metal dwells and any band that can sound slimy, murky and like it was recorded two rooms over gets instant accolades. I do understand the appeal here, to be fair: Death Metal is supposed to be heavy and the more cryptic, spacial sound that a lot of these bands have can be considered heavy in some way.
The issue however is how the sound dictates the writing in many ways. Speeding up too much can be an issue, as the music could become indecipherable and the amount of distortion and time based effects used means that more often than not, no harmonic exploration can happen. Gateway do pull from the usual bag of tricks, as well. Slow, often surprisingly chuggy riffs support reverb drenched atmospheric leads and vocals almost approach a pad in how they roar through their convolution reverb VST environments. Gateway are at their best when they marry groove, atmosphere and a sense of melody in their leads, with “Scourged at Dawn” being the best example. Yet, the album cannot really differentiate itself from other acts who do this. When aesthetic trumps writing, this is ultimately what we’ll have to deal with again and again. I enjoy the sempiternal soundscapes Gateway weave here and I even occasionally settle into a relaxed headbang, but I will get a similar feeling when, in a month or two, the next Caverncore album of similar quality is released.
