GATECREEPER
GATECREEPER “Dark Superstition”
By Dr. Abner Mality
Of all the newer American death metal bands, Arizona’s GATECREEPER has always been the closest in spirit to the classic sounds of Swedish DM. They’ve always nailed that chainsaw guitar sound pretty well. Well, there’s more to Swe-death than just bruising ENTOMBED and GRAVE worship and on “Dark Superstition”, GATECREEPER is tapping into other influences from that chilly Northern clime.
Calling this album a “pop” or “commercial”effort is going too far, but this is WAY more catchy than anything else GATECREEPER has done. Sounds like they have discovered their inner “Gothenburg”, as the sounds of melodic death metal permeate this disc. I’ve heard it also compared to ENTOMBED’s “Wolverine Blues” and while that’s a valid comparison, I think it’s a lot closer in sound to EDGE OF SANITY and the sadly neglected DESULTORY. The opening song has got Dan Swano and E.O.S. all over it and it works beautifully. The chainsaw crunch and roaring vocals are still there, but there’s a wonderfully sad lead guitar hook that really hits the melo-death sweet spot. This continues on the sublimely stalking “Oblivion” ...hell, “The Black Curtain” even has touches of AMORPHIS!
It must be said that GATECREEPER never goes the clean vocal route here and that’s a good decision. They also keep things tight and short and the album generally flies by. I do think it starts to get flabby in the back half, as “A Chilling Aura” and “Caught In the Treads” just don’t hit the same way the early tracks do. Final cut “Tears Fall From The Sky” almost pushes things too far in the melodic vein, but manages to keep from plunging too far in that direction.
“Mistaken For Dead” reminds everybody GATECREEPER can still do flesh-ripping total HM-2 death, but “Dark Superstition” is an interesting experiment for the band and one that generally works.