Artist: Gatekeeper
Album: Gatekeeper
Year: 2005
Track Listing:
1. The Passion
2. Without Fear
3. Dysuria
4. The Price Of Salvation
5. Dragon Nostril
6. Cleansed
7. Sea Of Lies
8. Most Beautiful Work Of Art
9. Coptopsy
10. Wormtongue
11. Coathanger
12. Sentenced
Line-up:
JACOB ENFINGER - vocals
ANDREW SHORT - bass
NICK URISCH - drums
LARS JOHAN STENBAKKEN - guitars
band website: www.gatekeeper1.com,
Myspace.com/gatekeeper
date of review: 7-26-06
Regarding the following review of Gatekeeper's self-titled EP, the reader should note that we are starting off with a lyrical analysis, which is
something other on-line metal magazines, radio stations, what-have-you, don't ever do. The lyrical analysis will be followed by a musical analysis,
similar to the type of thing most on-line metal magazines do.
It should be further noted that the lyrical analysis consists of thoughts provoked in the mind of the reviewer by themes from the song lyrics
rather than a literal interpretation of what the artists intended the lyrics to mean. If you really want to know exactly precisely what
the dudes in Gatekeeper meant each song to mean, you probably shouldn't read this shit. You should figure that out for yourself.
We at Doom Radio feel rock lyrics are to be taken personally and each person will have their own independent perception and/or interpretation.
You can find the lyrics and e-mail the band at their website(s):
www.gatekeeper1.com and myspace.com/gatekeeper.
But if you are indeed interested in reading Doom Radio's review of the music and lyrics of the Gatekeeper EP, then please do proceed, and of course by now
having devoted your time and energy into reading this far, you may as well finish what you started!
LYRICAL ANALYSIS:
THE PASSION
With forward by Al Gore, i'm assuming in response to the 9-11 terror attacks. I hear you man. Yeah, there's bad people. Yeah that's some fucked up
shit they did and I don't understand either but goddamn -- back to our regularly scheduled programming already. How long did it take before there was
anything else on T.V.? A week, a month? I don't remember. No wonder i'm bitching about t.v. news coverage. Yeah, there's definitely a conspiracy
afoot. It's just a tool for our corporate masters the Republicans to program us and thusly control people's perceptions about the world. Recruit
the strong and stupid for military/police purposes and keep the rest of the population fearful and docile.
COPTOPSY
We all know 'em, well all hate 'em. We've all been harassed by 'em. Here is a mantra to strap on and remind
ourselves how it really is when all of the sudden we are instructed by news media, people at work, etc. to worship the pignation
that we have become and perhaps have always been. Fuck the pigs and fuck their little bitches the ambulance drivers and firemen as well.
Let's kill 'em and eat 'em, and make skin masks out of their faces that every kid will want to be wearing this year at Halloween.
Oh yeah, and smoke lots of crack too!
WORMTONGUE
Oh yes, Tolkienesque reference to daytime talk T.V., Good Morning America, Regis and Kathy Lee, etc. television news programming
and such -- ah yes, we're your friends, all smiles, nothing wrong with those of us who conform and obey!
Like the side-kick of Saruman the "wise" in the LOTR trilogy -- this kind of advice from true "friends" will be the death of you
eventually, if you trust in them! Kill the mother fuckers now before they suffocate us with their insipidness! Amen.
SENTENCED
Ah yes, religious persecution. Ever have a job working with a Christian radio listener or two or three? Don't you love it when the
two or three of them get together to form a power block to make sure you don't change the station, and of course you do anyways because
you've got a thing called a backbone, and then the power block progresses into a
gossip group and they start talking about your satanic ass and speculating
about your irresponsible and possibly even non-law-abiding lifestyle? Ever complain about it to someone in management, only to have
them suggest a prayer group be started in the office? Me neither, but i've heard about stuff like that man! It happens all the mother-
fucking time and yes, it does give you the feeling of being SENTENCED!!!
WITHOUT FEAR
Further develops on this the description of the goodly T.V. viewer, eager to be programmed by T.V., newspapers, et cetera about
how soldiers are brave and cops are heroic, and crime never, ever fucking pays! Did I mention pay your taxes?
Yeah, to me the "Liberal biased" media is when the poor and downtrodden peoples of the world who make up the "liberal" spectrum
of politics ever have any kind of voice at all. It happens once in a great while, a human interest story will sneak in there, something
about the environment, feed the homeless, save the wales, legalize pot, etc., etc. And oh boy
is it not fair for some rich mother fucking CEO who could do something about it to be inconvenienced to have to hear about
real problems!
THE PRICE OF SALVATION
Yes indeed, having sex in the holy confines. Do we do it just to irk the president of the Catholic league or do we do it because it
is a big turn-on? Anyhow, this is something I'm sure we have all fantasized about, lots of good action at church.
COATHANGER
Shock value horrific Joan Crawford fetish back-alley abortion clinic bullshit. I ain't afraid a no hobos. But then again,
I'm a man, man!
DYSURGIA -- DRAGON NOSTRIL
Ah yes, songs penned by "non-lyricist(s)" of the band. Ya gotta humor 'em! While songs about making a trail mix out of human body parts and
the ensuing digestional problems may have no socially redeeming value, they are nonetheless entertaining. Isn't being
grossed-out fun? That's entertainment, baby. And where would we be without those rare song-writing contributions by the more
creatively-challenged members of bands? Imagine The Who without "Boris The Spider" by John Entwhistle or imagine life without those Beatles
songs that Ringo wrote.
SEA OF LIES
Sounds like a fight I had with my girlfriend the other day --
Ya know the theme as old as time, the beauty that cannot tame the beast.
Ya thought ya could train me but instead it is my sickness that lives on
and infects you like a frikken hantavirus. It's always about who has the power
in the relationship. My lies have become your truth! Your life!
Get used to it, baby!
MUSICAL ANALYSIS:
Tight as shit. Bone-crunching guitar riffs, altering rhythmically just enough to keep you from getting bored. Make no mistake, this is some hardcore
brutal death shit. It grinds,it tears, it churns and it burns Aint' no programmed drum patterns like you hear in so many industrial metal acts these days
either. Drummer Nick Urisch is all over the mother fucking map. There's a shitload of double-bass devastation but plenty of other interesting activity going on
on other parts of the drum kit as well.
Overall the music and the tortured guttural convulsions of vokillist Jacob Enfinger blend together with the musical instrumentation to evoke
imagery of being in an infernal pit, whether it be strictly literal or otherwise. And that's all I could ask of any death metal
album that is worth a shit. Take me to hell baby! Let me smell the sulfur and feel the torment in my mada fuckin bones!
Mykke Doom
With forward by Al Gore, i'm assuming in response to the 9-11 terror attacks. I hear you man. Yeah, there's bad people. Yeah that's some fucked up
shit they did and I don't understand either but goddamn -- back to our regularly scheduled programming already. How long did it take before there was
anything else on T.V.? A week, a month? I don't remember. No wonder i'm bitching about t.v. news coverage. Yeah, there's definitely a conspiracy
afoot. It's just a tool for our corporate masters the Republicans to program us and thusly control people's perceptions about the world. Recruit
the strong and stupid for military/police purposes and keep the rest of the population fearful and docile.
COPTOPSY
We all know 'em, well all hate 'em. We've all been harassed by 'em. Here is a mantra to strap on and remind
ourselves how it really is when all of the sudden we are instructed by news media, people at work, etc. to worship the pignation
that we have become and perhaps have always been. Fuck the pigs and fuck their little bitches the ambulance drivers and firemen as well.
Let's kill 'em and eat 'em, and make skin masks out of their faces that every kid will want to be wearing this year at Halloween.
Oh yeah, and smoke lots of crack too!
WORMTONGUE
Oh yes, Tolkienesque reference to daytime talk T.V., Good Morning America, Regis and Kathy Lee, etc. television news programming
and such -- ah yes, we're your friends, all smiles, nothing wrong with those of us who conform and obey!
Like the side-kick of Saruman the "wise" in the LOTR trilogy -- this kind of advice from true "friends" will be the death of you
eventually, if you trust in them! Kill the mother fuckers now before they suffocate us with their insipidness! Amen.
SENTENCED
Ah yes, religious persecution. Ever have a job working with a Christian radio listener or two or three? Don't you love it when the
two or three of them get together to form a power block to make sure you don't change the station, and of course you do anyways because
you've got a thing called a backbone, and then the power block progresses into a
gossip group and they start talking about your satanic ass and speculating
about your irresponsible and possibly even non-law-abiding lifestyle? Ever complain about it to someone in management, only to have
them suggest a prayer group be started in the office? Me neither, but i've heard about stuff like that man! It happens all the mother-
fucking time and yes, it does give you the feeling of being SENTENCED!!!
WITHOUT FEAR
Further develops on this the description of the goodly T.V. viewer, eager to be programmed by T.V., newspapers, et cetera about
how soldiers are brave and cops are heroic, and crime never, ever fucking pays! Did I mention pay your taxes?
Yeah, to me the "Liberal biased" media is when the poor and downtrodden peoples of the world who make up the "liberal" spectrum
of politics ever have any kind of voice at all. It happens once in a great while, a human interest story will sneak in there, something
about the environment, feed the homeless, save the wales, legalize pot, etc., etc. And oh boy
is it not fair for some rich mother fucking CEO who could do something about it to be inconvenienced to have to hear about
real problems!
THE PRICE OF SALVATION
Yes indeed, having sex in the holy confines. Do we do it just to irk the president of the Catholic league or do we do it because it
is a big turn-on? Anyhow, this is something I'm sure we have all fantasized about, lots of good action at church.