Just when you though Robin Van Oyen was done torturing his hapless guitar, his one man project Gateway has been brought back to life with this new EP, aptly monikered ‘Flesh Reborn’

This is the first sign of unlife from the Bruges bound artist since the ‘Boundless Torture’ EP two years ago and his first release since recently signing with Chaos Records. After warming up his torturing tools on the mostly instrumental opening track ‘Hel’, he kicks off the inquisition with ‘Slumbering Crevasses’. Now this is not as painstakingly slow as you might have expected from his previous output. It kicks quite a ruckus in the dungeon, bringing in a lot of undiluted Bolt Thrower intensity to his lethargic death doom. Definitely something I hope he will explore further.

‘Rack Crawler’ starts out on anything but a crawling, snail pace as he quickly puts the whip on the tempo. Although it’s not a complicated song by any means, being centered around raw, pummeling Coffins style riffing, it wastes no time lashing you to a bloody pulp.

The largest chunk of this EP is taken by the massive dungeon crawler that is the title track. Stretched on the rack for  a grueling 12 minutes, it takes its time to spill its excruciatingly extracted secrets. It slowly builds up with some very atmospheric and surprisingly subtle guitars. It even brings in some truly old school death doom ‘As the Flower Withers’ era My Dying Bride vibes  midway through until towards the end the song’s tendons finally snap in an excruciating wail of feedback.

Release Date: May 7 2021
Label: Chaos Records
Tracklist:

1. Hel
2. Slumbering Crevasses
3. Rack Crawler
4. Flesh Reborn