by Mick Reed
Efforts to restrict immigration along the US border with Mexico have increasingly forced migrants and those seeking asylum to enter the county through Arizona and Southern California, a route that takes them through the Sonoran desert. This has been done as both a deterrent and, seemingly, to reduce the likelihood of survival by those who undertake the journey. Summer day time temperatures there routinely reach 120 Fahrenheit, higher elevations are (ironically) plagued by monsoons, and the temperature can drop 50 degrees or more in a matter of minutes following a rainstorm. It’s an environment that appears designed to test the limits of human endurance and sanity. It’s a cruel place. A place of death… life too. Strange, alien life forms. Diamondbacks, gila monsters, stoic saguaro cactuses, and warty cholla plants. It’s fitting that a monstrosity of some kind would eventually emerge from this strip of government-sanctioned death-traps and fantastical toothy flowers, to slap itself atop a sun-baked stone and be declared king. As of the release of their second LP Deserted, that magnificent beast is indisputable Gatecreeper.
Since their early metal mag, Xerox cover art adorned demos, Gatecreeper have received a good deal of well-earned adoration for their dry-rot flavored brand on traditionally freezer-burnt Swedish death, with a distinctive glaze of ‘00s melo-death, served with the enthusiasm of a ‘90s kid who just discovered how uncomfortable the name Cannibal Corpse makes their parents. Like their necrotic neighbors to the north, Tomb Mold, the desiccated deviants of Gatecreeper build their songs around memorable guitar hooks that are as anthemic as they are disarmingly desaturated. Deserted stakes up easily against its predecessor in the band’s discography, 2016’s Sonoran Depravation in both mastery of form and devastating impact of execution. The most distinguishing factor between the two is the slightly clearer production on Deserted, which is not surprising given who was involved in the post-production (with co-production duties handled by Ryan Bram, mixing by Kurt Ballou, and mastering by Brad Boatright, it’s a wonder they’re not charging the listener by the second for this garish auditory gold).
Opener “Deserted” kicks up a slowly building whirl-wind of sand-pounding riffs and knifing grooves, keeping to the group’s signatory arid approach to havoc, in a deliberate, pain invoking, bare-footed march through a bramble of cactus needles, a masochistic tradition carried forward by later tracks like “Ruthless.” “Boiled Over” delivers a sucker punch of that ‘90s death metal muscle, with roiling grooves, dirging solos, and vocals so raw and human you can almost feel the heat of Chase Mason’s breath upon your cheeks. “Punctured Wounds” and “Barbaric Pleasures” indulge unabashedly in the swampy heatstroke of Entombed-esque Swedeath, with some characteristically silty qualities sifted in for texture and to give them that extra earthy smell, while “Sweltering Madness” draws putrid strength from roots that feed into the more grounded recesses of Swemetalers Grave's discography. The sun finally sets on Deserted with the cool to the touch “Absence of Light,” a not-quite-soothing reprieve from the scorching acrimony of the previous thirty-five minutes in the form of an aching death/doom pilgrimage.
Gatecreeper’s second studio release isn’t ambitious to break new ground for the band, but is rather to mine the same blood-soaked soil the group first let loose its petulant howl, finding fresh and terrible treasures with each crimson fistful of dirt they excavate. Their sound is appropriate for the region they’ve emerged from. One that isn’t hostile to life, but to certainty, to gentleness, and reflective of life forms that have thrived in the shadow of death, and despite the oppressions of governments and the indifferent gaze of nature itself. Drawing upon all the horrors of being abandoned to your death on this inhabitable earth, Gatecreeper has created an oasis of bitter water to slake the thirst of those souls with enough resolve to venture forth and find it.