Ocean Gates are Spain’s newest occult/hard rock sensation. Formed in Ferrol, Spain by members of Inerth, Looking For An Answer, Deadmask, Holywater/Window Pane, and Ursus, Ocean Gates picks up the shards of hard, heavy, and mysterious rock from forebears Black Sabbath, Hawkwind, The Stooges, and Blue Öyster Cult, while also honoring the paths blazed by contemporaries Celtic Frost (obviously, now Triptykon), huggybear lovers Cathedral (obviously, now With the Dead), and The Devil’s Blood (not so obviously, Dool and GOLD). Well, Ocean Gates’ imbues the dangers of the deep–they’re from a city on the Bay of Biscay–with a ’70s shaggin’ wagon boogie that provides modern slant to the doomed out, punked off, riff rock so prominent throughout history.
The Galicians have a new album–their first, actually–on the red-skied horizon. They hooked up with Galicia-based indie Boomland Records to realize the members’ vision of heavy, rockin’, no-fucks hard rock with a mysterious slant. Indeed, Ocean Gates’ swagger is audibly tactile. It’s the feel of Iommi’s finger thimble, the blood off Ron Asheton’s plectrum, and the inner vision of Dave Brock’s third eye. Seriously, Ocean Gates aren’t nearly as hyperbolic. They simply exist to rock hard, from their neck of the watery wood to wherever it takes them…
Says Santi: “‘Snake Circle’ is the second track from our eponymous debut album. With this song we made sure to pay an honest homage to all the doom rockin’ landscapes created in the past century that we worship–from Saint Vitus and Celtic Frost to Witchfinder General and Cathedral–, blending a past long gone with our own contemporary realities inside an atmosphere of doomed towns and deathly coasts. An anthem of disruptive revelation and destructive change. Go wild and enjoy it. Cheers!”
OK, fans of Lucifer, Devil Electric, and Blood Ceremony… Your newest and darkest love affair lies in wait. Welcome, with candles ablaze, dark purple shag carpet, decrepit old houses next to ominous bodies of water–hey, that’s a Stooges reference, right?–Spain’s newest riff-lords Ocean Gates!
