Review: Gatecreeper ‘Dark Superstition’
I remember really enjoying the last record from Arizona’s Gatecreeper, Deserted, and so this new offering is something that has been on my horizon for a while. Trying to take their Swedish infused sound to new heights of ‘stadium death metal’ (their words, not mine), they enlisted the help of Dismember legend Fred Estby on pre-production and if that doesn’t help to point you in the right direction, what else will? Dark Superstition is out now through Nuclear Blast.
Did anyone call for some old school Gothenburg stuff? Because Gatecreeper have a massive delivery for you. Opener Dead Star is REALLY old school Swedish melodeath in the best way. Not just Slaughter At The Soul worship, I’m talking The Red In The Sky Is Ours level of old school. The vibe is glorious, and while the pace is a bit slower, the riffs are legit.
The melodic lines on The Black Curtain and Mistaken For Dead are outrageously good, and I can’t believe I’m enjoying melodic death metal again this much in the year of 2024. I lived through the glory years of melodeath overdoing it to the extreme in the early 2000s, and while every so often I’ll go back and find a hidden gem, much of it doesn’t quite hold up.
If ‘stadium death metal’ just means massive riffs, massive melodies and tunes that’ll wedge themselves into your ears for weeks, then sign me up to more of this shit…
Gatecreeper have got the sound perfect here though, although if they leaned a little further into the Dark Tranquility-esque A Chilling Aura I wouldn’t be complaining either. Superstitious Vision somehow manages to sound like In Flames, Grave and H.I.M all at the same time, while that massive Dismember influence really comes to the fore in Masterpiece Of Chaos.
If ‘stadium death metal’ just means massive riffs, massive melodies and tunes that’ll wedge themselves into your ears for weeks, then sign me up to more of this shit. Death metal has been living in its own complacency for too long, and Dark Superstition might be the one that shakes it up a little bit.
Everything here is still heavy as sin, rippling with a fondness for Wolverine Blues et al but still keeping a real chainsaw guitar flame burning. The sceptic in me wonders just how far is too far along this path, but the headbanger in me cannot stop listening to Gatecreeper, and the headbanger is generally the one I listen to.
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
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Scribed by: Sandy Williamson
