Review Summary: Worm-infested death/doom for the whole family!
You know, a lot of times nowadays, death metal bands are trying to reinvent themselves. Take a band like Blood Incantation, for example. They've kept their death metal core, but have branched out into space ambient and progressive rock as well. A lesser known band like Defacement has messed around with glitch and dark ambient soundscapes mixed with their blackened death metal base. Other bands, like Canada's own Phobocosm, opt for a more straight-up approach. No, they may not have the experimental prowess of other death metal bands, but they've been pumping out testosterone-filled riffs for almost two decades now.
Gateway is their newest album and it is one chunky piece of riff-infested death/doom.
Now, this type of death/doom metal isn't for the faint of heart. There are bands like Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride who add a romantic element to their brand of death/doom, but Phobocosm isn't with that at all. The opening track, ‘Deathless’, proves that right off the bat with crypt-like riffs and cobweb-filled production that sounds like they were recording this album in a 2000 year old mausoleum. You can practically feel the corpses creeping out from their tombs to bang their heads. There's not a lot of variation, and that has always been the case with this band, but you can always hear the preciseness and fluidity with which they're approaching their style of music.
The trilogy of ‘Corridor’ tracks here really brings the guys’ death metal abilities to the forefront. They're not doom and gloom all the time and these three tracks are filled with breakneck riffs and blasts from another dimension hitting you in the mouth over and over again. When I say little variety, I mean that they rarely ever veer from their core sound, but it really doesn't matter much when the riffs hit as hard as they do here. As I mentioned earlier, the production is absolutely perfect for this style of death/doom and it really punctuates all of the riffs.
Gateway isn't an album that is gonna blow listeners away with its technical prowess or experimentation. Even though I dig a lot of the aforementioned bands for different reasons, sometimes a good old slab of cryptic, straight-up death/doom is exactly what the doctor ordered and Phobocosm have been doing it at a high level for quite a long time now. If you're in the mood for some hard-hitting, cheerless and dreary-sounding riffage, look no further than
Gateway, my friends, you will not be disappointed.
