Commenting on last and self-titled album back in 2018 our reviewer stated “Fuck. This is horrible. This is horrible in a thick, black, filthy way.” For some reason they did not come back for a second diseased dose leaving it for me to sink into the fetid sewer that is Galgendood. Unfortunately failing to find a translation of the title although it effectively summoned all sorts of dread and beastly images, next stop was to determine that Gateway is principally the work of Belgian Robin van Oyen (bar a few contributory leads from MH). He has been concentrating on releasing EP’s between albums and this work too is only just over the half hour mark. Maybe that is sensible as who could take anything longer?
‘The Coexistence of Dismal Entities’ is as cumbersome as title suggests, brackish and filthy with gargling, gurgling low slung vocals from where slimy things live. The doom is replicated via sluggish riffing and the death via the power from the portal it has opened up behind it. It stretches out with tentacles and claustrophobically envelopes and strangulates the listener in a bilious miasma of smoky rites and unholy, unspeakable practices. Speaking of which we next encounter the ‘Sacrificial Blood Oath in the Temple of K’zadu’ via tolling bells and riffs that shake and unsettle the bowels. We are deep below the earth in a cavernous space suited by the low rumbling and dense production and echoing chthonic backing vocals. The ceremony is ghastly and we are worn down by the slothful grinding raptures of the heaving bass sound. Atmosphere is added too via a short interlude. ‘Nachtritueel (Evocation)’ is a more ambient exercise of primitive sounding chants and bouncing drums. “My god, they are cannibals” is my thought hiding in the craggy part of the cavern witnessing this grizzly, gristly feast.
The second half of the album does not make the ordeal any easier. No doubt after a good sleep and belly’s full survivors are ‘Scourged at Dawn.’ Well our captors have to keep the larder stocked. There’s some plummeting riffs sliding down the scales like offal falling from a chest cavity and there is a bit of a blackened, slewed pitch reminiscent of Blut Aus Nord about them. We all know about mummified bodies and the best way of preserving them and there are no shortage of them to be exhumed in future times judging by ‘Bog Bodies Near the Humid Crypt.’ It’s slow grinding turmoil from instruments and craggy vocals here before the album culminates in the last primeval rite which is ‘Galgendood – Dagritueel – Duvelsput.’ Strangely all the low rumbling discourse of the album has by now left me somewhat chilled and hopefully that’s exactly what has happened to our prehistoric cave-dwellers here; Bone Tomahawk style perhaps?
This is not a Gateway many would be comfortable falling through and even less will make it out safely through the other end. Very much the soundtrack to a survival horror movie like The Descent or similar in my head; horrid, mucky, murky fun!
(7.5/10 Pete Woods)
Leave a Reply