Fast-rising Arizonan death metallers Gatecreeper came into 2024 with a mission: to release an album that would flex their biggest sonic evolution yet, and make a clear statement about modern extreme metal’s capacity to sound bigger, badder and catchier than before.
“That was our goal, to put out an album like that,” confirms frontman Chase Mason. “We felt like everything was aligned for us to take a big step and take some risks.”
Those risks paid off handsomely. Third album Dark Superstition, the band’s first for Nuclear Blast, wasn’t just one of the best heavy metal albums of last year, but one of the more exciting and ambitious metal records of recent years full-stop. Expanding on their fearsome, Sweden-indebted death metal template, the Phoenix crew added flourishes of rumbling doom, crusty hardcore, grandiose gothic metal, epic folk and old-school heavy metal thunder for a riveting and relentlessly catchy LP. Gatecreeper wear their influences on their sleeves (and heads: Chase sporse a Paradise Lost cap as he talks to us via Zoom), but few bands in the scene manage to pool their inspirations into something so fresh and huge-sounding.
“We’re a very referential band,” Chase admits. “All of our favourite bands, at some point, tried something new. We figured that this was our time to do that.”
Reuniting with producer Kurt Ballou and bringing in Fred Estby of Swedish death metal royalty Dismember to help hone some of Gatecreeper’s new material (“I don’t want to say I was starstruck, but I definitely had a lot of questions for him!”), Chase says his lyrical concerns were superstition and the supernatural. One track in particular, the sinister, lumbering Flesh Habit, with its darkly evocative lyrics (‘Every night I need to feed / Burning like a fire inside my veins’), draws the theme into sharp focus.
“One topic that I was really diving into was vampires,” he explains enthusiastically. “The idea of a vampire having this need to feed, for blood or flesh. I was able to put myself into those shoes based on my personal experiences with substance abuse.”
Having worked with one death metal hero and toured with some more in 2024 (he speaks with reverence about Gatecreeper supporting In Flames across the United States in May), it’s clear Chase believes Dark Superstition succeeded in its mission and then some. But he’s looking ahead. Gatecreeper wrapped up 2024 with a European headlining tour, and this year is about continuing to bring death metal to as many people as possible.
“In the past, there have been bands like Slipknot, they have blastbeats in their songs,” he muses. “But there’s obviously a much lower ceiling for a death metal band. Cannibal Corpse have made it to a level where they’re playing to thousands of people every night. How much bigger can you go? How much higher can you take that?” Perhaps we’re about to find out.
Dark Superstition is out now. Gatecreeper play Sonic Temple and Welcome To Rockville in the US this May before supporting Arch Enemy on tour across Europe this Autumn
