Arson Cafe: Gates of Ishtar - A Bloodred Path Review

Thursday, January 12, 2023

Gates of Ishtar - A Bloodred Path Review

At the time of the late 90’s, Swedish melodic death metal had laid strong foundations around the Gothenburg scene and was still blooming at the turn of the millennium approached. Gates of Ishtar served their debut A Bloodred Path following just a couple of demos prior to it, unfolding an entertaining collection of material that stands as a prime example of its genre and time.

Moving mostly at fast paced tempos, there’s endless melodic guitar riffing in the tracks with frequent soloing, high pitched shrieked vocals and rather personal lyrics of struggle and desperation, despite the music’s general upbeat character, at least to the extent that melodic death metal goes on that. “Tears” is a wonderful piece for all lovers of this style and a highlight of the record, but there’s numerous moments in A Bloodred Path to enjoy how the instruments are treated and the creativity of the band. The drumming is equally energetic and there’s no clear dreadful point in the album and its demeanour.

Now, how many other bands of that time could have been described with exactly the same sentences? Gates of Ishtar definitely had their moments in this record, which still dares to step into faster / more aggressive territories, for example in the self-titled track, “The Silence” or the almost black metal-ish introduction of “Where The Winds Of Darkness Blow”, which is another highlight. With larger entities in the scene at the time, like In Flames, or At the Gates who were much closer to Gates of Ishtar’s music, it seems recognition was somehow not spared for all the quality records of the time. I don't understand this W.A.S.P. cover at the end of the record, but that doesn't affect the great work that was actually put together by the band.

With nine tracks and 33 minutes, A Bloodred Path depicted a band with a considerable amount of fury and truly wonderful parts that will wake your inner guitarist. Gates of Ishtar had in content what they lacked in popularity around that time, and this debut speaks very well for itself.

DAMAGE: 3.5/5

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Reckoning

From all the hills came screams. A piece of sky beside the crescent sun was detaching. It was a loosened circle of evening sky, suddenly lighted from the back. It was an abrupt black body out of nowhere; it was a flat disk; it was almost over the sun. That is when there were screams. At once this disk of sky slid over the sun like a lid. The sky snapped over the sun like a lens cover. The hatch in the brain slammed. Abruptly it was dark night, on the land and in the sky. In the night sky was a tiny ring of light. The hole where the sun belongs is very small. A thin ring of light marked its place. There was no sound. The eyes dried, the arteries drained, the lungs hushed. There was no world. We were the world’s dead people rotating and orbiting around and around, embedded in the planet’s crust, while the earth rolled down. Our minds were light-years distant, forgetful of almost everything.