It’s been hard to cruise around metal blogs the past few while without seeing the name Gatecreeper pop up. Everyone out there seems to have popped a collective erection for these Arizona upstarts, and with good enough reason; Sonoran Deprivation is old-school death done right. It’s a tried and true sound for sure, but in such upside down times maybe some familiarity is alright. We all need a win right now.

This song is big. It starts out stark, a single lonely guitar, but quickly builds to a massive wall of old school death metal that begs you to start a pit in your living room, even if it’s with your cat. The HM-2 is strong in this one, no surprise when the liner notes list Kurt Ballou as producer but when you’re doing your best Entombed you go all the way. I’m sure my neighbours are as well versed with this track as I am by this point, to varying degrees of happiness. I had to keep checking that this was in fact the only release (aside form an EP) from Gatecreeper because this sounds like the work of a band that’s been around alot longer than these guys have. I could say it a hundred other ways, but if you’re going to rock death metal in late 2016, you could do a lot worse than what Gatecreeper has to offer.

-Scotty