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Gatekeeper - From Western Shores review



Reviewer:
7.8

60 users:
7.25
Band: Gatekeeper
Album: From Western Shores
Style: Heavy metal
Release date: March 24, 2023
A review by: tominator


01. From Western Shores
02. Death On Black Wings
03. Shadow And Stone
04. Exiled King
05. Nomads
06. Twisted Towers
07. Desert Winds
08. Keepers Of The Gate

Traditional heavy metal with a few unique touches sprinkled into it.

On paper, this new Gatekeeper album doesn’t do anything extremely special that makes it stand out between the sea of other heavy metal albums that get released throughout the year. Still, when I think of a solid good heavy metal album and then compare it to From Western Shores, it seems like Gatekeeper’s latest manages to be slightly better in every aspect. Not to the point I would call this record great or mindblowingly good, but being slightly better than a good album in almost every aspect does add up. As a result, I did enjoy this album quite a bit.

The production is very good. It’s a really clean sound. Often when an album has this kind of clean production, it loses a bit of grit and sometimes energy as well, but that’s not the case here. Yes, it’s clean and streamlined in terms of sound, but it still manages to have enough bite to it. Musically and vocally, I can’t complain too much about what’s on the menu, either. Drums and bass are used effectively to drive the songs; garnish that with some enjoyable guitar riffs, and you are almost there already. Finally, have a very classical style of seasoning in terms of the vocals. Though sometimes there might be a bit too much pepper involved... some of the screams sounded more like a screeching bird than the normal type of screams you would expect. On my first listen, those screams sounded a bit odd; on my second listen it was slightly less odd. However, I do feel some of these screams are seemingly placed on random moments in the song, rather than at the most effective moments. Anyway, that’s only a very minor part overall of all the vocals that are on this album.

Remember when I said “almost every aspect is slightly better than a standard good album”? Well, lyrics is that one thing it isn’t exactly better at. They're OK: nothing great, nothing bad, just a bit generic. You have your Lord Of The Rings stuff, defeating enemies stuff and the tried-and-true vengeance stuff. This isn’t going to win any “best lyrics” awards anytime soon, but all in all, it’s completely fine.

So, what more is there to tell about From Western Shores? Not a whole lot. There are some medieval touches/vibes sparsely sprinkled throughout, but I definitely wouldn’t say that there are enough to make the album sound particularly unique. Others might see this as a positive thing, though, and argue that it’s more subtly used than on a lot of other albums in the genre. I can for sure see this as a valid point, because I have heard enough bands in the past that relied way too heavily on those kinds of things in an attempt to sound unique, while in reality, they couldn’t get any more generic in terms of sound.

Again, Gatekeeper didn’t really do anything special or groundbreaking with From Western Shores, but it’s an album I’ll gladly give a few more spins in the future.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 8
Songwriting: 7
Originality: 6
Production: 9





Written on 19.02.2023 by You know I'm right, you just haven't realised it yet...


Comments

Comments: 4   Visited by: 56 users
22.02.2023 - 09:44
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
Reading this specially intro and lyric part and somehow I wonder how revivers and writers can find new words to write about similar sounding albums and bands?
----
I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens.

Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"

I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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22.02.2023 - 19:41
nikarg
Staff
Written by Bad English on 22.02.2023 at 09:44

Reading this specially intro and lyric part and somehow I wonder how revivers and writers can find new words to write about similar sounding albums and bands?

To be honest, this review actually represents the album. Tominator usually has an easy-to-comprehend and also very fun way of writing, but this review is a little flat, and I think it has to do with the album's quality. The problem is not the sound, but the songwriting. I listened to this and wanted to like it, but each time it sounded uninteresting. Better than generic as fuck, like Haunt for example, yet still not special in any way. Everything is supposed to be the way I like it, but the songs don't do much for me. If an album is very good, the words are easy to find and the review writes itself; at least, that's my experience. I wanted to review it myself, but couldn't come up with more than a couple of sentences.
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22.02.2023 - 20:40
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
Written by nikarg on 22.02.2023 at 19:41

Written by Bad English on 22.02.2023 at 09:44

Reading this specially intro and lyric part and somehow I wonder how revivers and writers can find new words to write about similar sounding albums and bands?

To be honest, this review actually represents the album. Tominator usually has an easy-to-comprehend and also very fun way of writing, but this review is a little flat, and I think it has to do with the album's quality. The problem is not the sound, but the songwriting. I listened to this and wanted to like it, but each time it sounded uninteresting. Better than generic as fuck, like Haunt for example, yet still not special in any way. Everything is supposed to be the way I like it, but the songs don't do much for me. If an album is very good, the words are easy to find and the review writes itself; at least, that's my experience. I wanted to review it myself, but couldn't come up with more than a couple of sentences.

I was referring to all writers in all metal zines, and do on. I will listen to this when it will be out.
----
I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens.

Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"

I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
Loading...
22.02.2023 - 22:33
tominator
At best deranged
Contributor
Written by nikarg on 22.02.2023 at 19:41

Written by Bad English on 22.02.2023 at 09:44

Reading this specially intro and lyric part and somehow I wonder how revivers and writers can find new words to write about similar sounding albums and bands?

To be honest, this review actually represents the album. Tominator usually has an easy-to-comprehend and also very fun way of writing, but this review is a little flat, and I think it has to do with the album's quality. The problem is not the sound, but the songwriting. I listened to this and wanted to like it, but each time it sounded uninteresting. Better than generic as fuck, like Haunt for example, yet still not special in any way. Everything is supposed to be the way I like it, but the songs don't do much for me. If an album is very good, the words are easy to find and the review writes itself; at least, that's my experience. I wanted to review it myself, but couldn't come up with more than a couple of sentences.

You're pretty much spot on. There isn't a whole lot to tell about this album. I like it because it should be something that I like. This usually is my type of thing and I do feel this is slightly better than quite a few solid heavy metal records. Just not more than that.

Writing a review for a really good (or terrible) album I find to be really easy. It's these kind of records though that make it a lot harder. I know it's a pretty dry and straightforward review, but I guess you're right that it also kind of reflects the album.

Heavy metal will always be one of my favourite subgenres, so as long as a band doesn't screw up completely, I'll usually have a solid time with a record. I'm fully aware that in this case my bias towards the genre has probably given them a very slight boost in score as well.
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