Who doesn’t love some good ol’ fashioned death metal? Throughout the 80’s and early 90’s the genre expanded the scope of heavy metal, heightening it with new characteristics of brutality, while simultaneously increasing the levels of sonic aggression. That bygone, but certainly not forgotten golden-era of death metal, left its merciless mark on music history, inspiring a boundless number of bands to continuously drive those extreme tendencies towards the underground masses.
Among the bands inspired by those classics comes Belgium death-metal-supergroup Living Gate, who wave their old-school flag high on Relapse Records debut Deathlust. Comprised of Aaron Rieseberg (YOB), Lennart Bossu (Oathbreaker, Amenra), Wim Coppers (Oathbreaker, Wiegedood), and Levy Seynaeve (Amenra, Wiegedood), the members of Living Gate come together on the five song EP to fully honor the untamed attributes delivered decades ago from the likes of early Suffocation, Morbid Angel, and Incantation. Do not expect to hear the mesmerizing, black-gaze qualities of Oathbreaker or the soundscapes of Amenra. Don’t even expect any YOB-esque, hard-hitting doom, although while listening to Deathlust you may just meet yours.
Disgorging break-neck riff after break-neck riff, some of the most relentless components from the aforementioned acts come alive over the course of the bands debut EP. A hammering heaviness initiates “The Delusion Of Consciousness” into grooving chaos, blazing a path of total destruction for the songs that follow. Guttural growling greets a fury of swirling riffage throughout “Roped” and “Deathlust,” leading up to the diabolical and punishing, “Heaven Ablaze.” My mind immediately drew comparisons to the Cabinet-era (Spawn Of Possession) track, “Swarm Of The Formless.” The mid-paced pulse of Deathlust gives way to blasts at times, explosive dueling guitar licks at others, encircled by all things deathly and foreboding from start to finish.
On Deathlust, the critically acclaimed members of Living Gate come together to celebrate the flesh-ripping technicalities and aesthetics that lured fans into this genre initially. They not only do a good job at keeping the ruthless roots of the genre’s pioneering acts fully intact, but reinvigorate them to a modern standard. Or perhaps the rooted qualities of the genre stood the test of time as they were and Living Gate is simply preserving them? Either way, this EP is the result of what can be accomplished when a group of talented musicians bond over their passion for extreme, underground metal.