Misanthropic Rage - Gates No Longer Shut

MISANTHROPIC RAGE - Gates No Longer Shut (GODZ OV WAR - CD 2016)

Godz ov War Productions has just prepared their three brand new releases. All together they make a nice set of Polish extreme metal that is worthy of you attention, believe me. I’ll leave Kingdom and Warfist reviews for later, but I can already say that they’re both really killer pieces of old school metal. Now I will write few words about Misanthropic Rage and their debut CD “Gates No Longer Shut”. This Polish band is new to me, I didn’t even know their name before this CD arrived, but I have to say that they’re quite promising beast and surely it’s yet another solid and worthy band on the death / black metal scene in Poland. I did enjoy “Gates No Longer Shut”, although the album required some more attention and many listens, before I got into it. It is far from being my 2016’s favourite release, but it’s a good debut, so please, check this band out.

“Gates No Longer Shut” is not an easy album. Misanthropic Rage music on one hand brings a killer dose of ferocious, brutal and dark sounding death / black metal which I liked a lot. There are definitely many fragments on this album, which let me think that this band is seriously good and deserve attention. They can play fast, but also have many killer mid paced or slow, but aggressive and vicious, dark sounding sections that I liked a lot.

But Misanthropic Rage style is not limited just to the extreme side and the band also takes a lot of inspiration from more progressive metal styles. They glue them into the death / black metal formulas without paying attention to any rules, schemes or standards, but the result not always pleases me as a listener. I mean, maybe some ideas and arrangements sound allright and I do like them as well, but at the same time there are some other that are just not effective enough. Sometimes the way the band decided to shift the way of playing or mood was too abrupt or maybe even unwanted. Especially the way clean vocals have been used here, their tone and way of singing, is not something I would like personally. They can irritate, luckily though clean vocals never play the main role, so it’s not something what would totally ruin this music for me.

Sure, there’s a lot of interesting and various things going on, “Gates No Longer Shut” is far from being one dimensional and monotonous. If you like music, which is not typical and which would avoid standard schemes, then this may be something for you. And as such, the title of this album is very fitting, as it informs you that the music is not just the classic black / death metal patterns, but it’s open for something new and evolves into often unexpected hybrids. Sometimes, like in the title song, it’s not something I would like, other time, like in “I, the Redeemer” the result is more satisfactory. But you may think that Misanthropic Rage did not manage to convince me at all. You’re wrong. This album did grow on me. After first couple of listens, I was not into it at all. But after a while and more listens, it got better. I’m far from liking “Gates No Longer Shut” in its entirety, there are some fragments, which I do not like, but at least they’re just few. Definitely “Into the Crypt” and “Cross Hatred” are my favourite songs here.

Standout tracks: “Into the Crypt”, “Cross Hatred”

Final rate: 65/100