Just as it dropped suddenly out of nowhere with a whole 12 hours’ notice, so An Unexpected Reality does its business so quickly you’ve barely got time to take it in before it’s all over. Gatecreeper have called it a double-sided album – what this translates to is seven one-minute-ish bursts of grindy death metal frenzy, followed by 11 minutes of doom. Short, yes, but in this there is not just some of the most thrilling music to come from the U.S. death metal scene in modern times, but appearing with no warning as it does in a time where the fatigue of a year in COVID world weighs at its heaviest, the catharsis and excitement of it all is a cathartic, thrilling, welcome slap to the face just when you really need such a thing. As with the established w...
