Gatecreeper to Surprise Release New EP An Unexpected Reality
SURPRISE! Well, sort of, anyway: Arizona’s Gatecreeper have announced that they’ll surprise release a new EP, An Unexpected Reality, tomorrow, Wednesday, January 13, via Closed Casket Activities.
Written and recorded while the band was on lockdown, the first seven songs of the eight-song release — what will constitute “Side A” in certain physical formats — are, according to a press release, “Inspired by grind, punk and hardcore,” and total less than seven minutes in length. Meanwhile, the final song — “Side B” — is eleven-minutes-long, representing “Gatecreeper at their slowest and most funereal.” Interesting!
Of course, announcing a surprise kinda ruins the surprise, but it’s still sort of a surprise, right?
Regardless, WE’RE GETTING NEW GATECREEPER MUSIC TOMORROW and if that doesn’t excite you you’re probably an Iced Earth fan.
In a press release, Chase Mason explained the band’s decision to unceremoniously drop An Unexpected Reality:
“I think the social media environment has just fried our attention spans. Trying to hold someone’s attention for two or three months with a typical album roll-out doesn’t seem feasible with everything else currently going on in the world.”
Mason adds:
“It’s meant to be listened to as a whole, so we didn’t wanna break it up or release a couple songs ahead of time as ‘singles’ or whatever. We also didn’t wanna treat it like it’s our next full-length. Because it’s not.”
Mason continues:
“When I was getting really into sludge and stoner metal like the Melvins and Eyehategod, they always referenced the B-side of My War. Hearing bands talk about not just a record but a specific side of a record, I thought that was really cool and it always stuck with me.”
Mason keeps going:
“We usually have a hard rule in Gatecreeper that we don’t have blast beats. But for the first side of this record, we lifted that rule and ran with it.”
Mason isn’t done yet, saying of the song “Superspreader”:
“That song was written when Arizona was the number one COVID hotspot in the world. The whole record was actually recorded during that time as well.”
Mason keeps going, commenting on the track “Sick of Being Sober”:
“The title is purposefully trying to be extreme, but it’s pretty much me fantasizing about relapsing. I felt like I would be having a much more comfortable time being locked down and not doing anything if I had some sort of chemical buffer.”
Mason still has more to say, now about the song “Depraved Not Deprived”:
“The song title is a little bit of a jab at everyone who spelled the album title [of 2016’s Sonoran Depravation] wrong.”
Mason finally concludes:
“This release was an opportunity to experiment and expand on different ideas within the Gatecreeper formula. It doesn’t necessarily signify a new direction for the band, but we’ll definitely have a couple new tools in our toolbox moving forward.”
You can check out the cover art and track list for An Unexpected Reality below. It will be available tomorrow at this link.
Track list:
- “Starved”
- “Sick of Being Sober”
- “Rusted Gold”
- “Imposter Syndrome”
- “Amputation”
- “Depraved Not Deprived”
- “Superspreader”
- “Emptiness”
