Gates - They Hide in the Shadows

Never Really There But Always, Always Watching...

#24) Gates - They Hide in the Shadows (2011)

 1. Outer Labyrinth
 2. Inner Labyrinth
 3. Dust of Absence

their 4th release is another live recording of the Moths (see Moths Have Eaten the Core
) album, recorded at the Music Gallery in Toronto on 11-3-11 and featuring the same line-up (BW, Pau Torres, Chris Worden, James McDonough) from the Winter album (see A Precessional Winter) and once again they've tinkered with the song lengths. Outer Labyrinths is now 12:57, which is down from Winter's 13:32 but still up from Moths 9:36. Inner Labyrinths is now 10:19, down from Winter's 14:17 but up from Moths 7:59. Dust of Absence is now 10:00, down from Winter's 14:18 and significantly down from Moths 21:10. i bring this up because even though they've shortened all the tracks, this is still a brutally oppressive album. i actually think the condensed lengths work in their favor, bringing all the power to the forefront. as much as i enjoyed Winter i think this is the superior album. the sound quality seems better, bringing the screaming and electronic noise into the mix better and as i mentioned before, the more streamlined track lengths really seemed to work out for them. the noise seems noisier which really compliments the mellower, nice (? i can't think of a better descriptive term at the moment...serene maybe?) parts. i'm sure by the next album they'll have changed things again but so far their experimenting has been paying off. definitely looking forward to the next one from these guys.