The Gate is a Polish progressive rock trio consisting of Maciej Dabrowski (vocals, bass guitar), Maciej Hanusek (guitars, keyboards) and Jakub Dabrowski (drums). This debut-EP was made possible by a crowd funding project and you can listen to six songs which are all rather dominated by the guitar work of Hanusek. His sometimes intriguing and experimental guitar solos give some of the tracks a rather special sound. The Gate is musically influenced by bands like Yes and Rush, but you can also hear sound influences from the seventies from bands like Boston or even Kansas. The album opens with the rather chaotic and weird track Android's Lovesong which features the female guest vocals of Anja Orthodox. Another 'misser' is the boring acoustic ballad Open Your Eyes, which is completely redundant to me as you probably know that I hate acoustic ballads! For the good stuff of The Gate you have to listen to the three long tracks, My Way or The Highway (8:25), Mirror Dream (9:30) and the best song of the album More Than Everything (10:03). The latter features some great guitar passages by Hanusek and the composition of that track is also something the band can be proud of. I think that The Gate has to work hard on their future compositions to establish themselves in the hard and very competitive music business of today. I wish them good luck and maybe The Gate will come up with a great album in the near future as these three guys are young and willing!! *** Martien Koolen (edited by Astrid de Ronde) Where to buy? |
