Day of Doom – The Gates of Hell
New York death metal has always maintained a distinct style and execution that revolves around a crippling form of technicality, brutality and de-tuned tonality that appeals to a certain demographic of pit terrorists. Day of Doom hail from Long Island and even though their style embodies all the irrelevant characteristics that are typically found in NYDM, this trio surprised me on the title track by breaking away from the tech blasting and slam grooves in favor of strange music breaks and even slower tempos/riffs that are actually a bit innovative. A different way of approaching the genre for sure and such an experiment does wonders for opening this music up to breathe a bit more. But then it’s back to the gurgling death fury which does lose a bit of Day of Doom’s impact due to a very garagey/muddy production. I can appreciate the talent and obvious painstaking work that went into the creation of The Gates of Hell, but as I’ve stated time and again within these digital halls, straight-up brutal death quickly and definitively died for me in the glut of the mid 90’s. A band has to be doing something pretty special within this medium to make me want to stick with them, or take notice. Even though some interesting song writing aesthetics do surface, Day of Doom really are not my thing in spite of their talent and obvious desire to expand creatively. -Marty
Lavadome Productions
Worm Gear 
Marty, I had the exact same sense as you did. I was taken aback by the odd arrangements and peculiarity of the 1st song, but it all quickly fell into the NYDM void quickly for me and I stopped listening after about 4 songs in. I do like the production though.