the netherlands rock 2 reviews for us!

[stevenfurgiuele]

vampire magazine
http://www.vampire-magazine.com/article.php?aid=44938

GATES OF WINTER (CAN)
LUX AETERNA Self Released
Written by Matthieu De Ronde on Monday 03 March, 2008. Last updated on Monday 03 March, 2008

Gates of Winter hail from the great white north of Canada and have been together for about five years. In those five years, their only release was the self-titled “Gates of Winter” EP in 2005. Now, just at the beginning of a new year the band independently released their debut album “Lux Aeterna” (Or, Eternal Light for those that don’t understand Latin).

At first glance, it could be expected that Gates of Winter to be a doom band, if you purely base yourself on the cover art and the song titles. However, the music itself displays a very technical progressive sound with a very dark, brooding melancholic atmosphere while. It’s not really difficult to see that the young band was influenced by Opeth’s music since it features that same dark atmosphere and mixes their lyrical themes with those of Saturnus. Style wise it falls somewhere between the aforementioned Opeth while the more melodic passages remind of Dream Theater. Two things that really caught my attention at the first listening sessions where the fact that how diverse the album is and how technically sound it is. The diversity is found in the many styles that are used, like the earlier mentioned dark, gloomy songs but at the same time not being shy of using an acoustic passage. This also causes the album to never sound boring. On the other hand, the music is just very solid. When you hear “Lux Aeterna”, you could say that these guys have been putting out records for a long time since they just sound so experienced. Vocalist Lee Maines is a very good and obviously talented vocalist since he does not only provide powerful (Damien Wilson-esque) somewhat growly clean vocals with many style adoptions but also rips open some dark and heavy grunts when these are needed to intensify elements of the music.

Even though 2008 has just started, I would like to list Gates of Winter as one of the top prospects of this year. Their heavy and dark progressive metal is very sound and diverse and even though the band hasn’t had a lot of experience, it’s obvious that there’s a lot of talent to tap here. Recommended for anyone who enjoys their progressive metal to be darker then usual.

lords of metal 82/100
http://www.lordsofmetal.nl/showreview.php?id=11118&lang=en#

Sjak: Gates Of Winter is a young Canadian progressive metal band (the average age of the band member is about twenty-three years!), which with this independent album 'Lux Aeterna' deliver their first full-length album (I don't consider the EP 'Gates Of Winter' from 2005 as an official release). The music of this talented band is quite complex and it took me quite a few listens before I really began to appreciate this. If you can also make this investment, you will get rewarded for this, because I consider Gates Of Winter as one of the best newcomer bands that I've listened to lately.

Their music shows much variety and ranges from very laidback acoustic parts (like in 'The Wildwood Pariah') to very heavy pieces with grunting vocals and this mixture is very much appreciated by yours truly. Despite of the fact that the band members are very young, their songs are already very mature and that's quite an impressive feat. The keyboard parts create the right atmosphere, the guitar parts are nice and heavy and both guitarists are delivering a great number of mighty fine riffs and solos, but for me it's vocalist Lee Maines who's the greatest revelation of this band with his very varied vocal delivery. Both in the softer as well as in the harder passages he's really impressive. Unfortunately I can't say that of Jody Lynn Bedard, who delivers the female guest vocals in 'A Dark Affliction'. She's an adequate female singer, but not of the same level as Lee Maines and that can be heard. All songs on offer here have a certain charm, but it's the instrumental title track 'Lux Aeterna' that gets the main prize. I feel that this band has a lot in common with Opeth, but then with much more orchestral and symphonic influences. If you're into this kind of metal, I would certainly recommend you to try out this 'Lux Aeterna' from Gates Of Winter. I'm pretty sure that you won't regret it!

Rating: 82/100 (details)

 

[Kenneth R.]