The Stadium Death Metal of Gatecreeper
Frontman Chase Mason talks about the Arizona band’s melodic new LP Dark Superstition
Nearly a decade out from the release of their first EP, American death metal champions Gatecreeper are experiencing the highest points of their career to date.
Their new album, Dark Superstition, is out and features the band’s most thoughtful and melodic writing to date, the result of a long and intentional process.
“The goal was to write catchier and more memorable songs and how that was translated for us, instrumentally, was just being a lot more melodic,” explains Gatecreeper vocalist Chase Mason. “The vocals and lyrics are a little bit more catchy this time around. That’s something that we focused on. We wanted to write better songs and songs that people could sing along to, or they’ll hum the riff in the shower. Our influences maybe have evolved or we have new influences or references to add into the mix.”
VIDEO: Gatecreeper “The Black Curtain”
The chainsaw guitar tones trademark of Swedish death metal bands like Dismember and Entombed are still the core of Gatecreeper’s sound, but this time the melodic parts take center stage. Album opener “Dead Star” is one of the catchiest songs Gatecreeper have ever written, at least until you hear third track “The Black Curtain,” which sees the Arizona quintet enter full-blown death ‘n’ roll territory. Sandwiched between the two is straight ripper “Oblivion,” which Mason describes as “the most Gatecreeper song we’ve ever written.”
“We’re trying out new things for sure on the record but there’s things we kept the same,” says Mason, explaining Gatecreeper’s new trajectory. “The guitar tone, we’re not changing the guitar tone. We can write different types of songs or different types of riffs but the guitar tone’s going to be the same. I think the vocals are much more dynamic than they have been in the past but I’m not singing at any point. My vocals are pretty much the same.”
Making a pivot to catchier and less harsh songwriting comes as no surprise to those who’ve been following the band’s decade-long career. Mason has been talking about “stadium death metal” since at least 2019, and Gatecreeper flirted with more melodic songwriting on the doomy “From the Ashes” from last LP Deserted. In fact, he thinks it’s in line with the tradition of death metal’s trailblazers, like Carcass and Entombed, who often took a stab at melodic, accessible music after their early work.
“I think that we’re paying homage to or heavily influenced by some of the Swedish or Finnish or American death metal bands,” Mason posits. “I feel like all of those bands that we really like, or many of those old-school death metal bands, at a certain point in their career they started to do something different, whether it’s Entombed Wolverine Blues, which is a big one obviously. “
“There’s examples in almost any death metal band’s catalog where they went into almost more accessible [sounds],” he continues. “I would even say Deicide Once Upon the Cross is one of those, so I think we’re staying true to the timeline of music we’re inspired by.”
Writing for Dark Superstition began quickly after Gatecreeper released surprise EP An Unexpected Reality in January 2021 but took a backseat to touring when shows began again. Mason, who plays guitar during songwriting and occasionally in studio, and guitarist Eric Wagner worked on ideas in between tours, sending riffs back and forth, but writing began in earnest at the end of 2022. Gatecreeper called a hard stop to touring in order to finish Dark Superstition, completing the songs and demoing the record several times. At that point, they called in Dismember drummer and songwriter Fred Estby to help the band tighten up for the studio. Though the songs were already written and demoed, Etsby listened to the songs and gave his opinions. He’s credited with pre-production on the album.
“We trust Fred, we love Fred, so we’re a huge fan of his work musically and he’s a great sound engineer too,” Mason says. “So we trusted his ear on things. We tried out anything he suggested and maybe not all of it made it to the record, but we definitely tried out a bunch of stuff with him. Some stuff did make it to the record and it’s really cool, even if it’s just a part in a song.”
When it came time to write the vocal parts for Dark Superstition, Mason also collaborated with No Warning singer Ben Cook, whose input helped Mason break away from vocal patterns and deliveries he defaults to.
Dark Superstition is the first time Gatecreeper left Arizona and longtime engineer Ryan Bram to record. Signing to Nuclear Blast gave the band a higher budget, so they flew to Salem, Massachusetts to record with Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou at his GodCity Studio. Having mixed Gatecreeper’s output since 2016, Ballou understands their sound and quickly got on the same page. Because they’d never recorded at GodCity and because of the pressure to deliver for their Nuclear Blast debut, Mason says Gatecreeper were extra prepared, which made things go smoothly and gave Ballou extra time to suggest ways to improve the album.
“Kurt was very fundamental to the record, and for our band,” Mason says. “He’s heavily entwined into the history of Gatecreeper and the Gatecreeper sound at all.”
As the album title suggests, Dark Superstition is thematically focused around magic, the supernatural and the unknown. The album title and cover are inspired by the Superstition Mountains, which themselves are shrouded in legends including the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine and various Apache superstitions like the belief that the mountain range contains a hole that leads straight to the underworld. These beliefs served as a jumping-off point for the lyrics heard on the album.
“I took the idea of superstition and dissected it,” Mason elaborates. “And learned more about it and what that entails and what exists under the umbrella of supernatural things and magic, the unknown, just things that aren’t real that we do put real sort of feeling or emotion or trust into.”
The singer explains that Dark Superstition isn’t a concept album but having a unifying theme served as a way for him to try new ideas without retreading old ground.
“I’m not a poet, I’m not very articulate, I’m not a lyricist,” Mason claims. “I’m just a guy. I watched a bunch of Dracula movies and werewolf movies and supernatural movies and just tried to get inspired by different things. The idea of Superstition Mountains was the theme and the inspiration for all of the lyrics, just to try out something new.”
Just like the music, it’s another avenue where Gatecreeper are shedding their old qualities and growing as a band. With Dark Superstition officially out in the world, Gatecreeper’s stadium death metal takeover continues as they continue to carve out a niche in the scene.
“I think that anybody who already likes our band will like it,” Mason concludes about Dark Superstition’s new direction. “The people who don’t like our band, it’s not going to change anybody’s minds, but most important for us is reaching new people we maybe wouldn’t have reached before.”
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