(Review borrowed from Metal Archives, written by Murmur_666)

Reissue of an Austrian black metal demo from 1996. 

As it often happens in the history of metal, there are a lot of bands underrated or unknown by the majority of listeners of this genre. I think The Call of the Four Gates is one of these bands. The discography of this band is very meagre, of course, and it does not help to remember the name of the Austrian trio. However, the sound developed by TCFG is really interesting and it deserves to be examined. If I had to describe in three adjectives the sound, I would choose: gaunt, mystical and vigorous. In fact, the music is really deprived of frills and baroque technicalities, the recording is really raw and grim and the instruments are mixed in a perfect and powerful vortex that is about to hit the kingdom of Christ. From this musical storm, guitars and keyboard often emerge, prevailing on drums and bass and building the sound's real scaffolding. This choice adds a touch of atmospheric epicness and it gives the songs a liturgical style by which the band wants to lead us to a dark subconscious world. So, while the main role is reserved to the guitars and keyboards, the drumming remains in the background, covered by a sonorous carpet built by the guitar's epic riffing and by the keyboard's impetus. However, this is not a constant and we can see it in the track 'Hyperion (The Mighty Satanic Moon)' where, after a keyboard intro, the drum leads a brief military-like pattern. Vocals are harsh and very appropriate for a kind of atmospheric and rough black metal like this. In fact, they don't soar above instruments, staying behind the musical framework like desolate howls in a distant forest. The songs seem to have a fixed pattern, because the sound always accelerates and decelerates originating a macabre and desolate melody, similar to a funeral procession. This particular and mesmerizing style is able to evoke the innermost human feelings, leading the (acculturated) mind to specific dark images, like those painted in the Danse Macabre's allegory or some of Dorè's gloomy illustrations for 'Paradise Lost'. So, the melancholic and yet the energetic anger evoked by the different guitar riffs (sometimes aggressive and dissonant, sometimes more melodic and sad) makes TCFG's music a successful cauldron of primitive instincts, from the most vital to the most sombre. Much more evocative are the repeated incursions of the keyboards that emerge from the gelid atmosphere created by the guitars and that makes the sound a real demonic yet mystic liturgy. Finally, I think the skill of the musicians lies in the ability to merge both the cardinal sub-genres of black metal with the atmospheric and raw ones; perfectly balanced. Recommended for somber and dreaming spirits and for lovers of atmospheric and primitive black metal!