Gatecreeper

GATECREEPER

The new wave of American death metal needs a breakout album, and Dark Superstition is it. Gatecreeper’s third full-length sees the Arizona death metal specialists—vocalist Chase H. Mason, guitarists Eric Wagner and Israel Garza, drummer Metal Matt Arrebollo and bassist Alex Brown—carving out their own path. The band’s first album for Nuclear Blast is more concise, melodic, and memorable than anything they’ve done in the past. “We refined the song structures,” Mason says. “We’re getting better at what we do.”

Formed in 2013, Gatecreeper have spent the last decade steadily climbing the death metal ladder. Their self-titled 2014 EP established instant credibility as purveyors of the old-school form. The band signed with Relapse, releasing their full-length debut Sonoran Depravation in 2016 and An Unexpected Reality (2021) which was released via Closed Casket Activities. At once an homage to their desert origins and a statement of death metal intent, the record landed them a 2017 tour with Cannibal Corpse and Power Trip.

In 2019, Gatecreeper unveiled Deserted, their ripping foray into self-described “stadium death metal.” It landed at number three on Decibel magazine’s revered year-end top 40 list. When the pandemic subsided, Gatecreeper snagged a slot on the 2022 Decibel magazine tour alongside Obituary and Municipal Waste. These days, Gatecreeper are headliners in their own right, touring globally under their own banner.

Think of Dark Superstition as Gatecreeper’s answer to Entombed’s Wolverine Blues or Dismember’s Massive Killing Capacity, pivotal albums on which the songs got tighter and more rock influenced. Or even Paradise Lost, who went even further in a rock direction with albums like Icon and Draconian Times. “In the mid-90s, all those bands were evolving into doing their own thing,” Mason says. “I feel like we’ve incorporated that timeline into Gatecreeper.”

Dismember played a particularly prominent role in Dark Superstition. The band’s drummer and main songwriter Fred Estby flew to Arizona to work with Gatecreeper in pre-production, helping them put the finishing touches on their songs. You can hear that classic Swedish influence on “Masterpiece of Chaos,” which evokes the tried-and-true Gatecreeper of Sonoran Depravation. Mason describes the track as “A nightmarish vision of a broken mirror with an ominous creature that lives within the fragmented web of glass.”

Thematically speaking, Dark Superstition deals with the supernatural, divination, fear of the unknown, and trust in magic or chance. “Many of the songs incorporate supernatural ideas with my own experiences,” Mason says. “But the title itself is a reference to the Superstition Mountains in our home state of Arizona. It’s a beautiful mountain range surrounded by tragedy and legends of hidden fortune.”

Gatecreeper widen their sonic palette on “Flesh Habit” and lead single “The Black Curtain,” which bear the mark of UK goth magnates Sisters of Mercy and Fields of the Nephilim. It’s still Gatecreeper in all their HM-2 glory, but with a sharper edge. “The Black Curtain” embodies the album’s theme with a tale of divination. “It’s about being trapped between living and dying,” Mason says. “A soul trapped in purgatory begging to be brought back by a supernatural force.”

Meanwhile, advance single “Caught in the Treads” deals in the kind of high-powered melodic death metal that will surely beef up Gatecreeper’s festival game. Along with leadoff track “Dead Star,” the song represents an elevated version of the band, primed for the bigger stages that the new album will inevitably take them to.

Dark Superstition was recorded at God City Studios in Salem, Massachusetts, with Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou, who also mixed the album. The record is a direct result of Gatecreeper’s experience, musical refinement, and commitment to death metal. “There’s a lot of bands in our lane,” Mason says. “But we’re trying to create our own.”

Frozen Soul Bio:

FROZEN SOUL emerged in 2018 from Green’s tenure in metallic hardcore bands,
Vulgar Display and End Times. The frontman’s hardcore intents gave way to thrash
and death metal roots and an obsession with the old school sounds of Bolt
Thrower, Mortician and Obituary. “I was working at a comic shop at the time,
playing a ton of Magic: The Gathering and I met Michael (Munday), and we began
talking about starting a death metal band. Then, Daniel [Schmuck] got in the mix,
initially as a guitarist for End Times, and FROZEN SOUL became our focus.”
Initially released in early 2019 on Maggot Stomp Records,

FROZEN SOUL's Encased in Ice 4-song-demo-turned-EP was the first howl of the arctic force to
come. The band immediately cemented their icy grip opening as DFW death metal
contenders for Necrot and Blood Incantation. “We had quite a few people from our
hometown at that show that had no idea we were a local band asking where we
were touring from,” recounts Chad. By Summer, the quintet had hit the road,
touring through the West Coast pulling double duty every night with End Times,
then hitting the Midwest with crossover thrashers, Plague Years. In between,
FROZEN SOUL solidified their hometown presence with a steady diet of local gigs
with the likes of Gatecreeper, Obituary, Vader and Exhumed before hitting the icy
roads of the East Coast with death thrashers, Steel Bearing Hand in January 2020,
playing to packed rooms including Brooklyn’s legendary Saint Vitus. With every
show, the band became a more glacial wall of sound and snow-machine enhanced
atmosphere.
An unexpected call from Century Media found FROZEN SOUL inking a worldwide
deal with the label. Pundits including Brooklyn Vegan had pegged the band for one
of the most anticipated metal albums of 2020. With Steel Bearing Hand bassist
Chris Bonner added to rhythm guitar, FROZEN SOUL entered the studio with
Schmuck handling production and mixing duties. The reception to the band’s first
full length was nothing short of unanimous: “The standout death metal statement
of 2021,” said Invisible Oranges. When FROZEN SOUL emerged from the global
pandemic to hit the road for seven weeks in North America with labelmates
Sanguisugabogg, they found themselves playing to sold-out rooms and being
hailed as one of the leading forces of death metal’s next generation. They even
have incited their own mosh-pit tradition: where fans stop and do mid-song pushups!
“One of our friends did that at a Dallas show and it became a thing when a
video of it went viral!” Green laughs. “It definitely inspires us to stay motivated to a
healthier lifestyle!”
Now, on the verge of their next chapter, the frigid force of FROZEN SOUL’s glacial
assault is about to be felt beyond the realms of death metal’s ardent cognoscenti.
While preparing for months of roadwork in the U.S. and abroad, they’re also
planning the third installment of Dallas’ Wrecking Ball Metal Madness, a nowannual
festival conceived and curated by the band and crew. “It’s all been
unexpected and surpassed anything we could have possibly imagined,” says Chad.
“We’ve all pushed ourselves to the edge and back and taken a ton of risks. All in
the name of old, I mean, cold school death metal.

Worm Bio:

“Spawned from the murkiest depths of Florida’s Everglades, Worm have proven themselves to
be one of the most driven and dedicated acts in the current landscape of underground metal.
Taking inspiration from the legends of the genre all the way down to the most obscure demo
level mysterions - all the while spinning these converging ideas into their unmistakably unique
brand of “Necromantic Black Doom”. If there is one thing you can always rely on Worm for, it is
evolution. From stark black demos that sound at home with the French black metal elite of the
90s, through to the swampiest doom soaked atmospheres of the “Gloomlord” and
“Foreverglade” and now finally with the symphonic cacophony showcased on “Bluenothing” and
“Starpath”, Worm have consistently shown their strength as songwriters and dissectors of genre.
What the future holds is uncertain, but have no doubt, in this era of apathetic irony fraught
metal, Worm reigns supreme.”

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