Album Review: Gatecreeper – Dark Superstition
Reviewed by Matthew Williams
Unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock or hidden in a deep dark cave somewhere, then you can’t have failed to realise the impact that Arizona death metallers Gatecreeper have made on the scene over the past few years. Their stunning second album 'An Unexpected Reality' really made people take notice of what they were doing and they earned more plaudits touring with Obituary in 2022.
They are now back with a third album, 'Dark Superstition' and it’s more concise, melodic and memorable that anything they’ve done before, with vocalist Chase H. Mason saying that they’ve “refined the song structures” and “we’re getting better at what we do.” A bold claim indeed, but when you hear the opening track 'Dead Star' you can see why he’s said it, as it’s a big, powerful song, almost like controlled chaos, that will lead them to bigger and better things.
The album deals thematically with the supernatural, divination, fear of the unknown and trust in magic or chance, with the album title itself a reference to the Superstition Mountains in their home state of Arizona. The album ramps up the pace a bit with 'Oblivion' which will lead to several crazy moshpits when it gets played live, and they follow this up with 'The Black Curtain'” a tale of divination, “a soul trapped in purgatory begging to be brought back by a supernatural force” Mason explains. This and 'Flesh Habit' pay homage to the UK goth gods Sisters of Mercy and Fields of the Nephilim, which adds another dimension to the bands musicianship.
They have an absolute beast of a track next, 'Masterpiece of Chaos' which has such an impressive heavy riff at the beginning , it’s just begging to blow up your speakers, before the intense vocal kicks in to add more venom. It has that classic Swedish influence, which comes from working with Dismember’s Fred Estby and will probably be the track that most will enjoy as it’s superb.
They rumble through the next few songs, 'Superstitious Vision' and 'A Chilling Aura' with great aplomb, both songs are intense, with the guitars from Eric Wagner and Israel Garza shining through, and the drumming of Matt Arrebollo being particularly impressive on the latter track. But it’s with 'Caught in the Treads' that they begin to shine brightly, as it’s a high-powered melodic death metal anthemic song full of awesomeness that will serve notice that their time is right here, right now.
The album ends with the blistering 'Mistaken for Dead' which will lead to lots of sore necks and bodies when this gets played live as it’s a beast of a song, and the brooding 'Tears Fall From the Sky' which feels all menacing and evil, with it’s slowed down almost doom like riffs. This wraps up an album which feels like the perfect album for where the band are right now and will almost certainly catapult them to greater heights.
