Ελληνικά
Genre: Death Metal/Powerviolence/Doom
Country: U.S.A.
Label: Closed Casket Activities
Year: 2021
Arizona’s finest death metal act Gatecreeper have just dropped a new album, entitled “An Unexpected Reality.” The new LP – unveiled via Closed Casket Activities – arrives while the world is holding its breath from lengthy lockdown and as coronavirus continues to dominate people’s attention.
“I think the social media environment has just fried our attention spans,” explains vocalist Chase Mason. “Trying to hold someone’s attention for two or three months with a typical album rollout doesn’t seem feasible with everything else currently going on in the world.” He also adds of the record: “It’s meant to be listened to as a whole, so we didn’t wanna break it up or release a couple songs ahead of time as ‘singles’ or whatever. We also didn’t wanna treat it like it’s our next full-length. Because it’s not.”
“An Unexpected Reality”, faces Gatecreeper willing to experiment. The band explains: “This release was an opportunity to experiment and expand on different ideas within the Gatecreeper formula,” Chase Mason concludes. “It doesn’t necessarily signify a new direction for the band, but we’ll definitely have a couple new tools in our toolbox moving forward.”
The album features 8 songs. It’s a bit longer than a typical EP but the band isn’t considering it a full-length. The first 7 that you will find in Side A or first half of the release finds the band in faster direction than ever with every track in almost or under a minute long each. Yes the music direction is powerviolence with many influences from grind, punk, and hardcore.
Side Β or the second half is musically speaking, way too opposite from the first one. With only one, heavy as fuck 11-minute death-doom song, that Chase says was inspired by Mournful Congregation, Paradise Lost, Evoken and Katatonia.
Chase finally adds that the concept of the album was inspired by Black Flag’s groundbreaking “My War” (it was released in 1984 on SST Records) , which had fast hardcore songs on side one and slower songs that helped pioneer sludge metal on side two. “When I was getting really into sludge and stoner metal like the Melvins and Eyehategod, they always referenced the B-side of My War,” Chase said. “Hearing bands talk about not just a record but a specific side of a record, I thought that was really cool and it always stuck with me.”
Surprisingly (or not for some of you) all this has worked really well and it’s impressive how already all fans of the band have embrace the new release. It’s less than 24 hours that the album streamed via bandcamp and webzines all over the world and fans via social media made it the talk of the town…(or better sayin’ the “global village” we are living).
