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Gates Of Punishment is the second full-length Rose Funeral have released with Metal Blade. The album was preceded by another, 2009’s The Resting Sonata, a 2006 demo (the self-released Buried Beneath the Blood) and an EP, Crucify.Rot.Kill, which the band recorded and was eventually re-released in 2007 by Seige of Amida records. The album features solid cameos by former Morbid Angel frontman Steve Tucker and opera singer Kate Alexander, and is a step forward in the continuing evolution of their sound.


Gates Of Punishment makes use of bits of symphonic orchestration, clearly done with synthesizers; they feel thin and a little cheap. Rose Funeral’s sound has definitely developed, becoming a little deeper and richer. While I can appreciate the impulse that led to them adding some melodic elements to a sound otherwise dominated by pure death metal riffs, the execution isn’t all it could be.

While they’re certainly not the first band to think of fusing symphonic and death metal, Rose Funeral are moving forward tentatively in this direction, adding it in by drops, as if it really is new to them.

This album also features way, way too many breakdowns; they are mostly superfluous and interrupt the flow. While Rose Funeral are unquestionably growing and progressing, they’re doing so along formulaic, predictable lines, where established bands have set very strong precedents.

There’s no new ground being tilled with Gates Of Punishment, but if you’re a fan of symphonic/orchestral elements in death metal hungry for more of the same, this isn’t bad.

(released September 27, 2011 on Metal Blade Records)



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