Century Media has reissued third rate Gothenburg melodeaf band Gates of Ishtar’s first two studio albums, The Dawn of Flames and At Dusk and Forever, remastered by Dugout Studios (vinyl mastering by Patrick W. Engel) and with new artwork from Juanjo Castellano as the original artwork was “really ugly” according to the band. The band should have been more concerned with writing worthwhile material than artwork for lame, cash-in releases on the popularity of In Flames and other competitors with VH1’s adult contemporary lite rock. Gates of Ishtar were not “melodic death metal masters” but warmed-over bouncy speed and power metal for a late 90s mallrat and Wacken audiences just like the most of their contemporary bands from Gothenburg, Sweden when they weren’t making outright pop music.
The Dawn of Flames famously jacked the art from Canadian speed metal band Exciter’s Long Live the Loud with the busty woman at the triumphant warrior’s feet. That album, while not anywhere near great or close to Exciter’s best, is still infinitely superior to anything Gates of Ishtar could have hoped to write in their sad musical career in the shadow of superior, more successful Swedish bands. Do not buy this as Gates of Ishtar’s albums were not lost gems or underrated; they were utter crap as the McDonald’s version of In Flames, themselves the Hot Topic Iron Maiden.
From Gates of Ishtar’s Funbook page:
GATES OF ISHTAR – re-issues of “The Dawn Of Flames” and “At Dusk And Forever” out now!
In Memory of Oscar Karlsson (1976-2016)
◊◊◊
“This was supposed to be something totally different. We made a united decision to let Century Media re-release our albums to make them available again for you, our fans. We were all excited and new plans were made for the future of GATES OF ISHTAR, including an exclusive live performance at Party-San festival to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of our debut “A Bloodred Path”. We all were looking forward to play together again and meet the fans who have kept our music alive in their hearts for all these years. Then Oscar died and in the aftermath of the tragedy these re-releases found a greater purpose. It will be a legacy of Oscar’s musicianship and a support for Charlie, his son.
We miss you brother, forever in our hearts!”Mike, Tomas, Andreas, Niklas – February 2017
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Due to unforeseen circumstances the re-release of GATES OF ISHTAR’s debut album “A Bloodred Path” had to be postponed to December 1st 2017. Some few copies are already circulating. We want to advise you not to pay huge amounts of money at Ebay, Discogs or other platforms where the CDs and LPs might show up. Just be patient and wait for the pre-order news from Century Media in autumn 2017.◊◊◊
“The Dawn Of Flames” (1997) and “At Dusk And Forever” (1998), albums no. 2 and 3 of Sweden’s mighty melodic death metal masters GATES OF ISHTAR, have been re-released. Get you copy on CD, LP or in its digital form now!
Order here: https://smarturl.it/GatesOfIshtarCMD
All albums have been re-mastered at the Dugout Studios (Meshuggah, Behemoth, In Flames) for the best possible sound quality, offering you GATES OF ISHTAR’s music on a whole new level. Patrick Engel of Temple Of Disharmony (Dissection, Asphyx, Tiamat and many more) has done a special vinyl mastering.
As the original cover artworks where either really ugly and not approved by the band (“The Dawn Of Flames”) or used without permission (“At Dusk And Forever”), both re-issues come with brand new artworks done by the talented Mr. Juanjo Castellano, who many of you will know from his work for bands such as Vomitory, Obscure Infinity or Portrait.
Rounded up by liner notes, new layouts and a nice packaging (Digipak CD, Gatefold LP + lyric sheet and 180 g vinyl), these albums are mandatory purchases for everyone into real Swedish melodic death/black metal from ancient times.
The colour split of the LP versions is as follows:
“The Dawn Of Flames”
Black vinyl: unlimited
Orange vinyl: limited to 100 copies, exclusively available at CM Distro
Transparent-red vinyl: limited to 400 copies, available at various mailorder stores“At Dusk And Forever”
Black vinyl: unlimited
Lilac vinyl: limited to 100 copies, exclusively available at CM Distro
Silver vinyl: limited to 400 copies, available at various mailorder storesGATES OF ISHTAR line-up:
Mikael Sandorf – vocals
Andreas Johansson – guitars
Tomas Jutenfäldt – guitars
Niclas Svensson – bass
Oscar Karlsson – drumsGATES OF ISHTAR online:
https://www.facebook.com/gatesofishtarofficial/?fref=tsCentury Media Records online:
www.centurymedia.com
www.youtube.com/centurymedia
www.twitter.com/centurymediaeu
www.facebook.com/centurymedia
http://gplus.to/centurymediaCentury Media webshop:
www.cmdistro.com / www.cmdistro.de
Tags: century media, crap, Exciter, gates of ishtar, Heavy Metal, lame metal, melodeaf, power metal, reissues, remaster, Sweden
How can I be cool like you, Daniel?
Hard drugs are cool.
Etymologically, »cool« was a slang description of the state people got into after injection Heroin which became popular among jazzers (then called hipsters, cf
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night, [Howl, Alan Ginsberg]
)
in the late 1940s (AFAIK).
And thats a cool fact.
THAT POEM SHOULD’VE BEEN CALLED
“I’M GAY”
Selfies weren’t yet popular at that time.