Description

Voronezh is the home town of Russian Mystical Gate who started as Aggression but then they played death metal. When the band after three demos changed musical direction into a more progressive doom metal they decided to change name to Mystical Gate. This happened in 1995 and eight of the tracks including the intro on this debut album were written back as early as 1996. The album begins with an atmospheric keyboard intro and leads into a pure doom metal song with growled vocals, a lot of keyboards and an altogether pretty varied atmosphere, which is reached through several rhythm changes, even though they never break out of the slow tempos. Here and also the next song it becomes obvious that the songs seamlessly flow into each other, building up a quite fluid atmosphere that gives the album its own appeal. Especially the use of keyboards also conjures up a certain gothic atmosphere and if I have used the word atmosphere several times in a short amount of time, then it is for a reason, because the guys put a big emphasis on it, together with the omnipresent melancholy, which threads through each and every composition and generates the typical doom stamp. And even though the songs do not really differ a lot from each other, they build up a cohesive overall structure that sure has its appeal. These Russians sends you on a one-hour journey through darkness and melancholy that definitely has its place in the grey days of the year.

Track listing:
1. Intro
2. Therere Stones Weeping Somewhere
3. Then Only Rain Can Hide My Tears
3. Long For The Sun
4. Long For The Stars
5. No Mirror Illusion Can Stop Making You Weak
6. Gloom
7. Fling The Doors Open Wide. Let Wind Go!