Between aggressiveness and rage of a thousand axes holstered by a band of furious blood seeking barbarians to a sort of prolific and atmospheric nature of something made out of ancient lore stories, right in the middle of the two tides, and I don't mean between good and evil, the German SPECTRAL stand firm and so is their Metal directive. Since 1995 these guys have been roaming in the midst of Viking, Black, Power, Thrash and Heavy Metal, and since 2001, when their debut album went to battle for a profound stature, they haven't stopped spilling blood in the path of the righteous and their new title, "Gateway To Death" via their constant label of CCP Records, is a proof of that. Nothing is finished and painting the world red while drawing horns on the corpses is still a must. Well I pictured something that might look as utterly devilish and even religiously satanic in a way, but in general, there something within my writings, in the case of SPECTRAL, that discovered that it is more mythical with no connection to a belief of a sort; at least this is what I know.

SPECTRALwere able to buy out my soul with two things that I just can't let go in a release; a good melodic nature plus some sense of diversity. While Power and Heavy Metal are sects of the band's musical associations that serve the driving force of Euro oriented Metal music, I knew that I would be treated well with some highly played melodies al'a IRON MAIDEN, RUNNING WILD and HELLOWEEN. Nonetheless, SPECTRAL also served a few hints of the enchanting side of blackened Viking Metal that didn't settle for only roughness but also added a fine dimension of atmosphere that also created as series of energetic harmonies. As for diversity, I nearly had it all. Aside from taking a tumble in the pits of old school Death Metal and its technical end, SPECTRAL on "Gateway To Death" went hard and strong to achieve superiority in every note they wrote, meaning whether it was Folk stories or headbanging anthems, they wanted it all and with the right smoothness to serve them well.

"Tank Attack" was the first track that caved my face to the wall. Such harsh musical intensity is not new to me but it did justice for the band's efforts when it came down to multiplicity. The war cries of "Tank Attack" by the filthy mouth of Vidarthe warlord, didn't escape my mind even a few songs after the former song was over. This is a good track bearing no mercy for the weak so watch out. "Death Of A King" was the opposite of the former. This epic story about some kind I imagine kept the harshness and extremities at a rather low rate while letting go to great mid tempo rhythms that enabled Vidar to let off the particular story he wanted to share with the listeners. Though I feared that it would end up the same as it started, I was surprised by a change of angle that didn't ruin the experience. "Gateway to Death" and "Into Oblivion" doled out as the rat salad of the two tracks that I described before, marching between an attacking horde filled with speedy Black and Thrash Metal prowess to the dominions of epic Power and Heavy Metal. The melodic lead guitar works on these two created wonders. There were seconds where I just wished that the vast majority of the others would be treated in the same way or at least better than the formers.

I have to hand it to you; I was pretty skeptic on how to grade this release. By and large, I think that SPECTRAL, with "Gateway To Death", showed a good taste and they know how to execute their likes in Metal in way that it would hypnotize the listener to their unspoken will. However, after spinning this one again and again, I figured that only good opinions added up in my little bank and therefore I was glad to provide them with something wholly positive.