(written by Islander)
We are genuinely thrilled today to introduce you to Osmium Gate, a two-person instrumental metal band “forged in the shadows of Salt Lake City, Utah”. Those two people are guitarist/bassist Drew Ehrgott, known for his work in Reverence Of The Martyr, and drummer Rene Gomez, “whose percussive presence reverberates through Ibex Throne, Yaotl Mictlan, and his bass work in Pan-Amerikan Native Front.”
Osmium Gate was formed in December 2024, and they now have a debut album named Cannibal Galaxy set for release on March 13th. We’ll share these further words from the press materials we’ve received, already excerpted above:
Their music bridges the terrestrial and the cosmic, creating soundscapes that feel both immense and intimate, like witnessing the quiet fury of a storm or the slow burn of a distant galaxy….
With their debut album, Cannibal Galaxy, Osmium Gate presents themselves as sculptors of atmosphere, fusing technical precision with an expansive sense of mystery. Each track is a portal, a threshold between the known and the unimaginable, inviting listeners to experience the forces that shape both worlds and minds.
Bold words, those, but they’re on-point, as you’ll discover through the song we’re premiering today, “Waters Of Natron“. Drew Ehrgott introduces it with these words:
“Waters of Natron” evokes a body of water that does not consume, but preserves. Here, living forms are arrested in time, hardened into silent monuments. The music drifts between tension and collapse, reflecting a place where nature’s chemistry becomes judgment.
The song’s overture combines a dense and scathing fretwork-blizzard with methodical pops and booms from the drum-kit. The riffing quickly creates feelings of foreboding and sorrow, while the drums seem like a steadying influence. But as the dual guitars more manically slither and writhe the drums briefly cut loose as well, blasting and battering.
The frantic intensity of the two guitar tracks manifests across the channels, heated and harrowing in both sound and mood. But while the impact remains vast, the mood changes again as the music seems to wail in agony and moan in grief. Grand chords of pain flare up; tremolo’d arpeggios contort in desperation and swirl as if begging for mercy; and the music’s intensity finds new zeniths with the aid of breathtaking percussive pyrotechnics.
The song is produced in a way that allows all the ingredients to stand out, and thus enables appreciation of all the ways in which the two guitars interact, as well as the continual flux of the drum-work, which is vital to the song’s dynamism.
It really is one of those songs that’s so emotionally evocative, so viscerally soul-stirring in its impact, that vocals are unnecessary, and indeed would have risked distraction from all the other marvels had they been present.
We also want to share the album’s previously released first single, “Blood Rain“. Drew Ehrgott described its conception this way:
“Blood Rain” draws on storms that stain the sky and ground alike, turning rainfall the color of warning. Long regarded as a sign of calamity, the phenomenon blurs the line between fear and understanding, where dread persists even after the cause is known.
This song is as multi-faceted and immersive as the one we’ve premiered today, though perhaps it’s even more harrowing. It envelops the listener in waves of dread and despair, explodes in lightning strikes of soaring and scintillating brightness, raises towering sonic monuments that ominously loom, descends into confusion and despondency, and thrusts like massive battering rams.
If anything, the fretwork in this one is even more varied, and the drumming is again spectacular.
Cannibal Galaxy was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Drew Ehrgott, and he also handled the logo and cover design. As noted earlier, the band will independently release the album digitally on March 13th.
PRE-ORDER:
https://osmiumgate.bandcamp.com/album/cannibal-galaxy
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