Band:	The Seven Gates
Album:	Gehenna's Sword
Style:	Death metal
Release date:	2007

01. Temple of Ashes
02. Gehenna's Sword
03. All Is In All
04. The Serpent's Wheel

It's been a long time that we didn't have a good band of Death Metal in France. Of course we have Benighted but when it comes to really classic Death Metal, those kinds of combos aren't a lot in the hexagon. "Gehenna's Sword" is the first demo of The Seven Gates, a band which comes (one more time) from the really active region of Lyon (Furia, Benighted, Nightmare etc come from there too?). It's good to have such releases made in France!

The Seven Gates plays classic Death Metal, and you know what? It's good to listen to such kind of music nowadays! When you know that 90% of the bands which pretend to play Death Metal now play Gothenburg Death (a style that I like but which is near of the point of saturation in my opinion) it's really refreshing to discover this kind of demo. "Gehenna's Sword" is a lovely album of Death Metal a la Morbid Angel. This is violent but we have good melodic riffs, I mean that the songs don't sound like some brutal machine, we're in front of violent music with catchy riffs. Those riffs are maybe a bit repetitive and monotonous sometime but it's a matter of experience, "Gehenna's Sword" is only the first demo of the combo and I think that this kind of problem should be fixed in a near future. The band already has a lot of personality but it should be even better with time and in that case I'm sure that the songs will sound a bit more original and personal (don't believe that I'm saying that the band is not original? it could be better that's all).

The four songs of the demo are well recorded, seriously for a demo, the production rocks. Plus, the performance of the guys is impressive, the voice of Vincent is really strong and the guitars soli are really good too. All in all, "Gehenna's Sword" is a really promising demo. Maybe that the songs of this demo lacks a bit of personality sometime but it's a first release and I can tell you that the best will come with this band.

If you like old school Death Metal which is violent but however melodic and not only brutal (a bit like with Morbid Angel) have a look on this release. Also, don't forget to remember this name because I can already tell you that The Seven Gates will become an important combo of the French Metal scene. I hope that a first album will come soon and that the band will be able to confirm my hopes and my words. "Gehenna's Sword" is a great beginning, this is promising really?