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ASTRAL GATEWAY
Spectral Dimensions Unraveled EP

Iron Fortress (2024)
Rating: 8/10

This is the debut EP from Astral Gateway, the solo project of Tennessee native Arian Mauk who has leant his talent to various projects including Chunked and Pissrot. Spectral Dimensions Unraveled is a three track unearthly death metal platter dripping with wild, chaotic menace. Vocally it’s the usual bestial grunts and coughs but the music is far less prosaic as dense, flabby walls are pierced by peculiar, angular and definitively cosmic meandering.

‘Fathomless Rarefaction Of Stellar Matter’ is one of those stuffy yet perplexing barrages but completely unlike the often glossy and slam fused tech death around. As the EP unravels what interests me most are the pinches of melody which waft within the chunkier construction of the more expected aggression. For such a short EP it’s rewarding because of those melodic twinges within the murk.

The title track is another impenetrable wall of blasting humidity built upon a foundation of bellowing vocals and vile blasting, but it also introduces an interesting eerie interlude and slower, doomier passage too. The closing song ‘Shattered Coerleum Remnants’ exudes an esoteric menace initially before the meaty chops unravel. Some of the scurrying drums and busy solos are so intriguing before reverting back to the hefty gnashing. I’m really looking forward to a full-length album.

Neil Arnold

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