Chuck Schuldiner Project

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Gatecreeper - Deserted


Can we all just agree that in the new wave of OSDM arms race Gatecreeper are the clear winners? With only their second full length Gatecreeper decimate the death metal legions. Having embraced an unrelenting road schedule and punished listeners across the globe with sheer volume for three years now, Deserted is a sound of a much different band than the one who wrote 2016's Sonoran Depravation. What we are given here is a monster of a record honed by years on the road by a band hell bent on world domination.

With this record and subsequent appearance on the cover of Decibel Magazine it seems clear that Gatecreeper have shifted from death metal upstarts to one of the prominent modern faces of the genre. Deserted does a great job of representing the breadth of their music. Album closer 'Absence of Light' is a slow and in some ways beautiful punisher. Meanwhile tracks like 'Barbaric Pleasures' will see longhairs dragging their knuckles across the pit for years to come. It's Gatecreeper's ability to balance these sides of the death metal genre whilst making it clear that they have what is wholly their own sound, that makes them so compelling.

As the 'blech' at the beginning of 'Sweltering Madness' can attest, Deserted is a filthy fucking death metal record. There is so much to sink your teeth into here and it feels with every passing riff you get dragged even further into the abyss. Gatecreeper have dramatically honed and refined their sound here making for a record that is a fair step ahead even their recent splits. I know we still have a few months to go, but for whatever it's worth, Deserted is a very strong contender for death metal album of the year by any metric.

Find them on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/gatecreeper/

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