PHOBOCOSM - Gateway CD

Montréal’s Phobocosm return with “Gateway”, an unrelenting and eldritch death metal opus that seals one chapter while unveiling the next.

The album includes material from every songwriting period of the band, some of it dating back to the “Deprived” and “Bringer of Drought” eras, as well as “Foreordained”, of course,” explains guitarist Samuel Dufour.

“Gateway” was recorded, mixed, and mastered by long-time collaborator Xavier Berthiaume (Gevurah, Sanctvs) during the same session as Foreordained, giving the two records a consistent sonic throughline, while allowing “Gateway” to close established narratives. “We view it as the closing of a chapter for the band,” Dufour continues. “Not that our future material will be completely different fr­om our existing material, far from it, but we have decided to do things a little differently next time around by adding new elements that haven’t appeared in our music before, exploring different dynamics and experimenting with a new tuning.

Thematically “Gateway” grows from ideas first explored on Foreordained: “The song ‘Revival’ from Foreordained inspired the album’s theme, which is the fact that humans have been trying to live forever — or to unnaturally prolong life — since the dawn of time, often for reasons even more absurd than the pursuit of eternal life itself,” elaborates Dufour.

“We used this as the main theme and pushed the concept further, exploring the most repulsive forms of cruelty humans are capable of — even when using science as a means to prolong barbarity against their enemies.” Visually the album continues Phobocosm’s collaboration with Lauri Laaksonen (Desolate Shrine, Convocation, Pestilent Hex). “From looking at it, one can see that it is a gateway to something ominous, but what lies beyond is up to the listener.”