The Gauntlet – Dark Steel and Fire (You’d Probably Call This Diabolic Blackened Rock)

 

We’ve got a real textbook mishmashing of diabolic generalities about this one amongst lesser critics, as expected. “Ominous.” “Haunting.” “Malevolent.” “Satanic party.” Wait, WTF. Satanic party? Do you people even proofread what the hell you’re writing? This is the usual garbage spewed out to describe something like this, which in essence is primitive blackened rock. Do we need these other words? No! All we need is armor dude on a motorcycle macing some demons from Diablo I or something. Get it? Learn to express.

   

I knew I was going to like this, and I also knew I didn’t need loaded language to dig or explain it. The Gauntlet takes a purposefully primitive approach to blackened rock. Think Venom, but good. “Oh, you mean Bathory?” you say. In something of a sense, yes, yet not. Within the simplicity and all the scratchy riffs of Dark Steel and Fire is a modern mix of dark atmospheres and bright production, making it at once scary to the uninitiated and familiar to the sick. For a debut full-length after a short run of two splits and one EP, it’s quite the future at hand, but it’s okay if this is all we ever get.

 

The Gauntlet Official Bandcamp

Written by Stanley, Devourer of Souls

The Gauntlet – Dark Steel and Fire
Eternal Death, N.V.N.M.
Cover Art: Raul Gonzalez
4.8 / 5