Gatling is a fairly unknown two-man band from Canada. They have made one independent demo and are currently writing more material for a second. The interesting thing about Gatling is that, aside from being instrumental, both members of the band are multi-instrumentalists and play several instruments, often in the span of one track. They also do not stick to one genre, but play everything from death metal to techno to post-rock. Unfortunately, the only way I know of to get this demo (aside from listening to their songs on YouTube or MySpace) is to go to a show and buy it.
While most demos are only three, four, or five songs long, Gatling's has more tracks and is longer then many full-length albums. At a whopping eighteen songs totalling 71:09, these guys aren't fooling around. Lots of replayability is a strong point of this CD, because it goes in so many different places that it never really gets boring.
Opener
Aerospike Engine features a cool delayed guitar riff along with a strong drumbeat. The song continues like this for a little bit, then comes a short drum solo, and then a voice sample from... Star Trek? Weird, but it works. The sample changes pitch several times before blasting into straight-up metal. A great guitar riff ends the song off. At only 2 minutes, the first song of the album is done.
Questionable Ethics has a ska-type vibe at the beginning with a great guitar solo, which launches into a rock song. Track three,
The Disguise is a techno song with a two guitar solos and a variety of great drum fills.
Static Bones is more pop-sounding than anything on the album thus far, but features a very good guitar lick and break down section with an almost tribal drum beat behind it.
As you can see, this album covers lots of different ground. I've only described the first four songs and have gone across five different genres. Rather than continue describing every song, I'll stick to some of the highlights of the album before wrapping it up.
The Majestic IV: Resonance Cascade is an absolutely beautiful track and probably my favourite from the album. At 7:34, it is the longest song on the album. It goes from a great opening guitar riff to a slower section which leads into a heavier part, and the last two minutes of this song may be the best on the whole demo.
Nihilanth, which comes directly afterwards, has an almost four minute guitar shred-off at the end between the two members of the band that is both technicality impressive and awesome-sounding.
Statue of a Statue opens up with ambiance and turns into a very impressive slower song, with an emotional guitar riff. Finally, closer
The Weighted Companion Cube is insane. It goes through almost every idea the band covered across the whole album in five and a half minutes. It almost sounds like An Endless Sporadic's song 'Impulse'.
However, for all the great things about this demo, there are some negatives too. First of all, the recording quality fluctuates somewhat between the songs.
Nihilanth is loud and boasts great production for the most part, while the Spanish-influenced
Defacto is very quiet. Also, a couple of the tracks on the album don't quite live up to the rest of them.
MZB5 is an energetic rock song that, while well-written and featuring a cool drum beat during the verses, feels a bit empty. Also,
Thraupidae, while an interesting ambient-song, is pretty repetitive. Finally, the length may be off-putting to some. At 71 minutes, this demo takes time to listen to in the whole. However, this album is great for just listening to one or two tracks off of, as each track lives its own separate life in a way; to get the full experience, though, listening to the whole album is preferable.
And that about sums up this album. I haven't even mentioned some of the tracks, including death metal track
Colossus of Rhodes, or the experimental
B, but you can listen to those and find out for yourself. I highly recommend this to fans of any music, just because this band is so unique.
3.45/5
