Gates To Hell - Death Comes To All

Gates To Hell – Death Comes To All
Release Date: 21st March 2025
Label: Nuclear Blast
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Hardcore, Slam.
FFO: Vomit Forth, No Cure, Bodybox, Fuming Mouth, Tribal Gaze, Snuffed on Sight.
Review By: Mark Young

Expanding on a theme, I noticed that a lot of death metal I’ve been listening to recently seems to leave me feeling apathetic to it, in that something is missing in the final recorded product. I don’t know what it is, but I know that previously I would be genuinely excited to listen to hear new bands and what they had to say. It’s almost like I need the bands to work harder to provide that necessary jolt and therefore engage me in the journey they are taking. It could be that I have reached saturation, but that is a discussion for another time. If this feels as though it’s a way of managing your expectation for this review, it probably is.

Gates To Hell, newly signed to Nuclear Blast bring their latest full length release for your delicate ears, and it is as brutal as you might expect given its name, and with some wickedly short run times it is the aural equivalent of a smash and grab raid as the band detonate chugging riffs along with some quality skin bashing. The songs have just enough time to carpet bomb before leaving devastation in their wake, and I just love this approach. I’ve complained recently (old man shouting at clouds?) about songs repeating the same measures in an effort to pass a certain track, but these guys positively delight in giving you the short, sharp shock whilst not keeping to a truly traditional death metal attack. Hardcore is mixed up in this blender and the content is spat out in an urgent manner, and I think that addition helps in those moments when they let the brakes off. On first listen it plays out as almost one, but if you give it the time then those little touches from other genres come though. One thing you cannot fault is how well it has been recorded; everything is up in your face; the riffing is massive, and the whole thing just sounds great. They have managed to capture that brutality without losing any of its intent along the way.

The downside I have is that even with those little touches I mentioned earlier, the songs are quite alike and even with repeated listens I couldn’t pick out a stand-out track. I’m not suggesting that there are any poor songs on here, far from, and they manage to maintain a steady level of quality from start to finish. Based on this, they have the tools to go out and devastate in the live environment, and there is enough of a foundation here to make a potential classic in their next release.