Within the small town of Seinäjoki Finland, comes a duo of raw blackened thrash death. A vile tone forged within a musical writing partnership that dates back as far as 2007. Their new project GATES OPEN may have only just begun their crusade within the world of metal as a duo, but they are not unfamiliar to the distorted guitars and harsh vocals. DOWN INTO SILENCE, a melodic death metal band where multi-instrumentalist Jere Neejärvi and vocalist Tommi Manninen first began to write together before the project split back in 2021.

Two years later, the metal gods have called once more and the dynamic duo have answered the call. Together again, they formed GATES OPEN within the year of 2023 and within the summer released their first single “The Awakening” under the banner of Inverse Records. The Duo then began to release a few other singles and even their debut full-length album “Voice After Silence” independently. Now back under Inverse Records, this duo of blackened thrash death return with their latest EP “Black Clouds Over The World”. With six tracks that hit fast and hard for 22:20 minutes, this EP will  become a testament of what is to come from these guys. So without wasting any more time, let’s get into it.

With the album artwork we have shades of grey, blacks and whites that depict an ominous and somber image. We have what appears to be a figure cloaked in black standing atop a hill overlooking a town below. The landscape stretches out before the man as the sun crests the horizon. Rolling clouds sit above the town covering what looks like the moon and broken dead trees and crosses lay scattered around the cloaked figure. The band's logo sits top center while the album name sits bottom center within a clean but distressed font. Both are bold in white. An interesting concept that can shed light into the EP’s tone and theme possibly. It appears to be painted and has a dark aesthetic to it which is always a personal favorite of mine.

An eerie chant begins with a dark atmosphere synth that soon breaks into some solid thick riffs. “Nightmares Coming True” takes off and is backed with some industrialized synth keys. Decent chord progression but has a decent industrial metal influence. Vocals remind me of a bit of CHILDREN OF BODOM.

“Poison Nurse” comes off in the same way. An industrialized death metal. With vocals that coat everything in a vile tone. The chord progressions for both lead and rhythm flow perfectly together and the bass just thickens it up perfectly. A bit of a slow chugging pace for the track but it's executed quite well.

As I listen through “Black Clouds Over The World”, the EP appears to be more industrial metal than anything. I really wouldn't label it thrash myself but more of an industrial metal. There are times you can hear the influences of melodic death metal within various chord progressions So i can see it falling under that.  GATES OPEN kind of reminds me if you take MURDERDOLLS and meld them together with CHILDREN OF BODOM you would get their sound. It has that melodic death that is tinged and influenced by industrial metal. One thing to note is that the production value was decent as well.  The mixes of everything sit well and make for easy listening. Though the mixes do sit well, for me the tracks don't really stand out too much and start to sound similar from one track to the text. I am curious to see where this new project takes these two as they have a talented duo. So if you enjoy old school melodic death that is tinged in industry, then this ones for you. I recommend picking it up and giving it a try.