Gateway : "Galgendood"

 

This doomy death metal project out of  Belgium is unleashing the follow up to it's 2015 debut. It's impressive that this is the sole work of Robert Van Oyen. It lurks like a Lovecraftian horror in the dark intersections of doom and death metal. Often when you think of death doom, you might imagine the more refined rumblings out of the UK from bands like Paradise Lost, this album has not such lofty ambitions in fact it's sole purpose is to drag you down into it's underground lair and choke the life from you with it's sonic tentacles. There is a great deal of atmosphere to the cavernous madness being vomited forth here. It does create a uniformity of sound at times. Sometimes this almost gets murky. 

The vocals are at a breathy gurgle that sound like they are coming from a Ouija board. The track "Night Ritual" is more of an interlude than a song unto itself. It does provide enough room to breath before the more ominous march of "Scourged at Dawn" kicks in. The production value of this album is a little rough , but that is what gives the album it's disturbing charm. If you like to smoke weed and chill out when you listen to metal , I would not suggest doing that to this album as it is produced with effects haunting the edges of the guitar sounds that might scare you. When the more driven riffs are not controlling the song things are dark and haunting. 

"Bog Bodies Near the Humid Crypt" is slow and crushing. There is a densely heavy sound to this , but it mainly chugs around a similar sonic spectrum from what you have heard earlier in the album, until midway into the song it gathers some steam and begins to move. That that the riffing does shift around proves there is an awareness when it comes to songwriting. However the uniformity of the sound here causes the last song to feel very similar to what you have already heard here. For that reason I will give this album an 8. The fact it is so dark and dismal is the appeal of it , but not really the kind of song I am likely to feel compelled to listen to on a regular basis.