Galgendood

Gateway is one of those weird acts where I’ve had more success with the scattered releases than the full-lengths. Not that full-lengths have been particularly forthcoming, Galgendood marking just the second in nearly a decade of existence, but the 20 minute EPs have hit the spot better in terms of putting forth the unique brand of monstrous sludgy death that Robin van Oyen deals in. The sole member fuses almost industrial rhythms with hideously low guitars and drawn-out belching growls, hitting any kind of pace so rarely that I originally got into this from the doom angle, a take that still holds water if you think about the music in the same sense as Coffins or Eternal Rot. In the case of the latter, their latest album closely resembles Galgendood, although Gateway sets proceedings inside the lair of a slaughterhouse-lurking madman and Eternal Rot in dank caverns that are simultaneously the site of a zombie attack.

Anyway, onto the main show here, and I’m a little torn about whether Galgendood represents a positive move for the project, since the previous themes of medieval torture and excruciating inhumanity seem to have taken an odd turn into the ritualistic, what with a track called 'Sacrificial Blood Oath in the Temple of K’zadu' and 'Nachtritueel (Evocation)' being just what it promises and sounding like an unearthly ritual conducted under the shadowy folds of night. In a sense, the latter fits the sound very well, pausing the guitars for a couple of minutes in exchange for tribal drumming and a myriad of distorted voices, though the attempt to evoke a more distant kind of horror with mysterious scenarios in the other songs strikes me less at a fleshly level than the beastly grunts and squealing pinch harmonics did when van Oyen was describing someone being stretched on the rack. However, it’s the type of change that seems necessary, because the musical assault of Gateway has always remained narrow to a fault, with only the virtues of atmosphere and repetition keeping me gripped. No surprise then that Galgendood just barely scrapes half an hour in length, since it wouldn’t have the legs for much more.

Of course, my conclusion that this style of death doom has a built-in time limit may not make sense to everyone. Philosophically speaking, Gateway is not about progress, it’s about decay, and Galgendood does a good job of applying that principle to its structure, allowing each song to ooze over into the next one with the same slithering wetness suggested by 'Bog Bodies Near the Humid Crypt'. Actually, that makes the album easier to digest, since looking at 6 cuts of around 5 minutes each you’d expect a few features to stick in your mind, but contemplating instead a 30 minute mush of doomy caverncore terror you would be pretty dumb to hope to remember much. The way this is produced ensures the effect, with ridiculous amounts of reverb, distortion, and down-tuning applied to almost everything that can take it, sucking even the punch out of the drums so that all instruments just rub wetly together. With the album on loop, I don’t even pick up the transition from the last track back to the first.

Therefore, you can probably tell that I’m in two minds about the success of Gateway’s latest offering. If you enjoy sonic filth, I can recommend Galgendood without any qualms; however, if you value elements like instrumental prowess, song structuring, or discernible highlights, this album is not for you. Arguably, it’s all the more difficult to judge because this is what Gateway has been about since the beginning, so I can’t say that van Oyen has failed to make something suitable for his project, more that he’d already made quite a bit of equally suitable material, rendering this kind of redundant. The opening half seems stronger to me, partly because 'The Coexistence of Dismal Entities' is everything I want from Gateway, 'Sacrificial Blood Oath…' contains a rare intense section, and 'Nachtritueel' represents something a bit different, but diminishing returns can’t be ruled out as a cause either. My final suggestion is to listen to this at times you would be pleased to feel like a malignant demon escaped into a foetid jungle, such as when you’re hungover and trying to do your taxes - for that, Galgendood will transport you into a dark and powerful mood instantly.


Originally written for The Metal Observer - http://www.metal-observer.com/3.o/review/gateway-galgendood/