THE G.A.T.E.S. (Total Death) CD
The list of bands who draw influences from early Motörhead is endless, and most of this groups never reached the level of Lemmy and his crew. Yes, they completely failed and are nothing than a bore. But not this Japanese band, which was born as a side-project of Church Of Misery bassist Tatsu and previous singer Yoshiaki Negishi, who formed THE G.A.T.E.S. in summer 2002 with the intention to play some sort of brutal Rock 'n' Roll in the vein of 70's Motörhead and Tank. Guitarist Futatsugi pushed the band in a stronger hardcore punk direction, influenced by early Discharge or the US-band Crucifix (good stuff!). The result was pretty amazing, and the band released the split-LP "Total High Society Satanic Rocks"with Metal Skull in 2003, which was sold out very soon.
In the same year, THE G.A.T.E.S. played only one show and was disbanded after gig. "Total Death" is the re-release of the split-album and contains also a very rare demo, and has been released via Diwphalanx Records in 2005. Of course, this is nothing groudbreaking or whatsoever, but it makes fun how this group is storming through the included seven songs. They did also a steaming cover of the Motörhead-classic "Overkill" and some of the other songs are sounding like unreleased Motörhead songs. OK, even THE G.A.T.E.S. didn't reach Lemmy's gang, but they have been on a good way. The musical skills of the four involved musicians are on a high level, and apart of Tatsu's mighty bass tone, I like to mention drummer Fukawa, who's kickin ass here as he also did with Sonic Flower. So, if you may want to know, how it would've been sounded, when Lemmy had joined Discharge, than check out "Total Death".
(KK)