What’s going on Butcher Crew?! It’s your Master Butcher, The Saw, and I am back with another band of the week! If you like O.G. Death Metal, but also enjoy components of hardcore, then Gatecreeper is the band for you!
This band combines death metal riffs and also hardcore riffs in order to formulate their sound. It gives their music a violent groove that you can both mosh and dance to! I first heard about Gatecreeper when they randomly started playing on my Spotify. I really like the feature that Spotify has in which it plays bands that they think you will like after listening to an album. I immediately added Gatecreeper to my library. They have that sound of death metal that I cannot get enough of. It’s so eerie but yet, so groovy!
Gatecreeper is an American death metal band from Phoenix, Tempe, and Tuscan, Arizona that formed in 2013. They took the scene by surprise and seized the underground after their 2014 release of their self-titled EP. The band has combined the death metal style of Entombed but also added hardcore components. All the members of the band are fans of both death metal and hardcore, and listen to both genres frequently. Two members of the band are also in a hardcore band, Territory; of course, Gatecreeper will have some hardcore components. Their vocalist, Chase Mason, says that hardcore influence has always been there, and they do not use it any more or any less on their other albums.
The lyrical content speaks about Mason’s heroin addiction, his former life before he joined Gatecreeper. Mason has been 8 years sober and will be at 9 years this coming August. I think it is great that Mason is open with his past and will talk about it within Gatecreeper songs because I’m sure people can resonate with the message. This is just another example of music being used as an outlet for not only the listener, but also the creator.
Current Members:
- Chase “Hellahammer” Mason (vocals)
- Eric “The Dark Cowboy” Wagner (guitar)
- Matt “Thunder Rage” Arrebollo (drums)
- Sean “Hell Mammoth” Mears (bass)
- Israel Garza (guitar)
Discography:
- Gatecreeper (EP) (2014)
- Sonoran Depravation (2016)
- Deserted (2019)
- An Unexpected Reality (2021)
Stay Metal,
THE SAW