CoC : Heaven's Gate - Menergy : Review

Heaven's Gate - _Menergy_
(Steamhammer/SPV, 1999)
by: Paul Schwarz (4 out of 10)

Drawing heavily from the classic heavy metal styles of Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and the like, Heaven's Gate (who have been in existence since 1987) could have some trouble standing out from the growing crowd of "Reborn in Metal" bands. They have a good grasp of heavy metal song structures, an ability to write decent, sometimes catchy, riffs and somewhat anthemic and catchy choruses; but one thing they are certainly not doing is injecting an ounce of originality into this near-30 year old genre. One big fall down is their tendency to focus on one particular band's style within individual songs; thus "Mastermind" sounds like a lost (and worth losing) Annihilator track, "Menergy" like 'Priest (with a couple of notes actually -ripped- out of "Invaders" for good measure) and "Enter: Eternity" like the fathers of Hammerfall's slow melodic ballady numbers. Overall, this is disappointingly stagnant for a band who are four albums into their career, but, as a stand alone album, is on par with the mass of mediocrity currently being produced in this flash-in-the-pan-fashionable genre.

(article published 15/6/1999)