Perpetually are there tons of new acts cropping up along the vast undergrowth of the metal underground. It is virtually impossible to keep up with it all given the sheer volume that’s always out there with many being far more obscure and far-flung than others, and it’s anyone’s guess as to which bands are going to catch your eye and then doubly so in regards to those that actually keep your attention. With enough digging in the right places, however, anything is possible. When I sat down tonight, I knew not what I would find, yet it’s after diving into the right place that I was presented with Summoning Hellgates whose brand of ferocity is something that is definitely worth investigation and revisitation.

Featuring members of numerous acts that are successful in their own styles, it’s already tempting to say that Summoning Hellgates is doing just that in magnificent fashion throughout the whole of their diabolical debut, “Spear of Conquest”. As soon as your eyes lay on the cover art itself, you should already have an idea as to what kind of record we’re dealing with here. Reveling in the sensation of flames licking at your heels while the screams of the damned provide an eternal soundtrack to exquisite suffering, this is death metal unyielding and menacing of a sort that never relents even when it seeks to pull back for only incredibly brief moments between its assaults upon the spirit. It’s simplistic enough but it’s in execution that Summoning Hellgates never allows stagnation to enter the conversation nor does this act allow itself to repeat itself into exhaustion to keep “Spear of Conquest” appropriately sharp, pointed, and nigh on effective at whatever vicious task Summoning Hellgates has put before itself. The dead itself play a critical role in showcasing the menace and terror that’s sewn into the very DNA of this utterly sinister debut. Death metal of a singularly fiery source that leaves nothing to chance nor offering so much as a flicker of hope in regards to mercy, “Spear of Conquest” cuts deep, cuts well, and ensures your suffering will be legendary such that you’ll always come back for more delicious masochistic torment.

This is a debut that already showcases a tremendous understanding of the craft in such a way that’s downright intoxicating to become lost within. Menace plays a big part in this death metal that beckons the very bowels of hell to open up and spew forth with all of its flames and suffering, and it demands to be made clear that Summoning Hellgates more than lives up to its very name at every possible turn. “Spear of Conquest” is brief, but it’s in hardly no time whatsoever that this creation invokes something primal and petrifying of a sort that’s simply undeniable.

“Spear of Conquest” releases on November 28th via Osmose Productions!

LISTEN to an advanced track from “Spear of Conquest” on Bandcamp here.

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