I wanted to spin this record and complete this review ahead of release, but life had other plans, so here it is, a few days after launch with my apologies.
So without further delay let’s dive in and see how the fourth studio album from desert metallers Gatecreeper stands up?… Answer, Pretty damn well. We open strong with ‘Dark Star’ followed by ‘Oblivion’ both giving off 90’s death metal vibes with a modern polish and the gritty, sun-bleached sound Gatecreeper have made their own since their arrival.
One immediately obvious thing is the use of melody on this record, more so than can be found on the band’s earlier outings. It works well against the raw heaviness the band has built their foundation on but it begs the question is this a melo-death album? I’ll let you decide, it’s certainly, gloomy and holds an inherent darkness to it, tendrils of doom metal creep into the guitar tones and paint a picture that you may have not expected going into this record.
‘The Black Curtain’ is an incredibly strong track early in the album and really hammers home the melo-death flavour and does so in all the right ways. This is followed by ‘Masterpiece Of Chaos’ which is just that, a really cool, retro death metal track complete with guttural growls and guitar squeals a-plenty.
I won’t do a track-by-track breakdown as the album can speak for itself when listened to, but I will say that ‘Caught In The Treads’ has been on my rotation list since it was released and I’m glad to see that it was the perfect herald for Dark Superstition and is, for me at least, the standout track of the album. It’s a slab of heaviness and a prime example of modern death metal.
Looking at other reviews I see a whole load of comparisons to other bands and other sounds, all of which are warranted and for me, this stands as a testament to just how good and well-engineered this record is and how versatile Gatecreeper have become as a band. There is a reason many see this band as the frontrunners for the new wave of modern death metal and if there were any doubters out there, then Dark Superstition should and hopefully will make converts of them all.
Dark Superstition is available now via Nuclear Blast records!
