Friday 22 September 2017

Returning South of the Wall: Northwest Metalfest

Greetings again! It hasn't been long since our last post but we wanted to get this out while it's hot and fresh.

Our good friends in the pacific northwest have resurrected the classic "Northwest Metalfest" name and we are the first band to be announced. This will be almost exactly two years since our last Seattle appearance and we are beyond excited to return south of the wall. We are not in a position to spill any beans regarding the rest of the lineup but we are assure you that fans of the olde-schoole will be tickled by the bands that the fest has lined up for you.

In their own words:

"Originally founded by concert promoter, Lipstick bassist and local scenester Brett Miller, he launched the first Metalfest on September 19, 1981 at Lake Hills Roller Rink/Crossroads. This landmark concert featured TKO, The Mob (featuring members of Queensryche), Babylon (featuring Geoff Tate on vocals and singing for both bands that historic night), Perennial, Open Fire, Myth, Rampage and Little Wing. The second Metalfest was held on August 29, 1982 and again TKO were the headliners - along with the first NW appearance of Portland's Wild Dogs, Culprit, Overlord, Realms, Myth (with Geoff Tate on vocals) and Kidskin.

Now all of these years later NW Metalfest returns! James R. Beach and Brian Naron of the retro record label NW Metalworx Music (also soon to include a history book on the NW metal scenes) have joined forces with local musicians and concert promoters/bookers Amy Lee Carlson and Max Nazaryan (also of the band Substratum) and local scenester Michael Podrybau (also of the 80s bands Glacier and Harlot) to bring you an Annual 2-day extravganza. We're calling it NW Metalfest in the spirit of those classic concerts back in the day with Brett Miller's blessing. We hope to bring back the vibe of those exciting shows and give some attention to both the great older and newer bands in the local areas."






Friday 15 September 2017

Upcoming Gigs - Fall 2017

Apologies for the extended silence. We've been hard at work this summer recording our debut LP and we only have a handful of sessions left until it is ready. We will have a host of exciting announcements very soon in this topic.

Seeing as how we've been holed up in our Dungeons Of Tone for the past four months, we've decided to stretch our legs a bit this autumn. We'll play a pair of shows in with our good comrades in Substratum and Bewitcher, who are venturing forth from south of the wall for their west coast tour. This will take us to our first-ever appearance in Victoria, BC on Sept 30th and back home to Vancouver on Oct 1st. We will play our final show of the year opening for the mighty THOR on Oct 27th in Vancouver at Pub 340 with our pals in Road Rash. We will play a set of pure, unbridled muscle rock at this show and we are extremely excited.

Please note that we will NOT be playing anymore shows after this until the new album is out. Don't miss out on the fun!


See below for posters + Facebook events:



(Saturday, Sept 30th @ Logan's Pub Victoria, BC. Gatekeeper opening)


(Our first headlining show in Vancouver!)


(Gatekeeper opening. Halloween weekend + LAST SHOW OF THE YEAR)


Hope to see lots of familiar faces (and some unfamiliar) there. 

'Til next time,

Geoff

Thursday 18 May 2017

Vagabonds from the Western World

The rental van has been returned. The shower has ran. Dinner has been cooked. The laundry has been cleaned and the groceries have been paid for and jammed into the fridge. I've contracted some sort of touring van virus and can't go five minutes without gargling hot salty water or blasting snot from my nose. I'm back at work and trying desperately to run profit margins on polyethelene sheets without blacking out.

I believe this means that we've had a good tour.

She was a quickie, just five gigs in five days spread across 4,000 beautiful kilometres of western Canadia. I played a lot of power chords and ate a lot of Egg McMuffins and shook a lot of hands and laughed my ass off for what feels like 120 straight hours.

Massive thanks to everyone involved in making the tour and the shows the best they could possibly be. The promoters (Sloan, Tyson, Kyle and Randy), the venues + staff (Pats Pub, Distortion, Mercury Room, The Legion, Munnin's Post), the bands (Assimilation,Omnisight, Martial Law, Hazzerd, Eye of Horus, WMD, Unleash The Archers, Displaced and Arkenfire) and all the friends, new and old who came, saw, and had their faces rocked off. Special thanks to all those who let us crash on their floors, fed us and gave us booze. Much love and respect.

The future is looking great. Our next move is to put the finishing touches on our debut LP, then burn Armstrong Metalfest to the ground. 


Talk soon.

- Geoff
Gatekeeper and Assimilation

Friday 17 February 2017

Raiders From The West

"“So they crucified their Messiah? Well can I believe it. That He was a Son of the Living Spirit would be naught to them, if indeed He was so.... They would care little for any God if he came not with pomp and power.” 

Gatekeeper is proud to present:





When we were asked to play Shredmonton and Armstrong Metalfest, we asked ourselves "why stop there?" and booked ourselves a brisk little jaunt across the Rockies and back. Individual show details to follow soon, please watch the blog and the Facebook pages for details.

We are happy to disclose that our good friends from Vancouver's Assimilation will be joining us for Vancouver, Calgary and Kelowna on this tour. It'll be a week of might, muscle and Manowar.

Wednesday 1 February 2017

Shredmonton Festival

Happy to announce that we have been booked at the Shredmonton Festival/Conference. This will be our first Edmonton performance since August 2014, when Jeff moved to Vancouver and restarted the band. Looking forward to sharing the stage with our good friends in Eye Of Horus, Unleash The Archers and WMD. 


Gatekeeper plays on Saturday @ 10:00pm! We'll see you at the conference and at the show.

Buy your tickets here: http://shredmonton.com/tickets/

Check back soon for another exciting announcement!

Thursday 26 January 2017

Armstrong Of The Law


We are pleased to announce that Gatekeeper will be appearing at AMF festival this year. We'll be sharing the stage with AggressionODINFISTXULEye of Horus and loads of other groups from Western Canada & beyond.

From the Organizers:
"It's your lucky day!!! We got our first eight bands for the 2017 line up! Check it out! Playing AMF 2017!
+ Don't forget to get your early bird pre-sales tickets before the price increase after Feb 1st.
https://armstrongmetalfest.ca/tickets/

Confirmed for the fest are the following:

-----
Eye of Horus (Edmonton, AB) - https://eyeofhorusofficial.bandcamp.com

-----
Gatekeeper (Vancouver, BC) - http://gatekeepervinland.com

-----
XUL (Vernon, BC) - https://xulmetal.bandcamp.com

-----
Tales of the Tomb (Edmonton, AB) - https://talesofthetomb.bandcamp.com

-----
Aggression (Vancouver, BC) - http://www.rawthomatopokay.com

-----
Seraphic Nihilist (Prince George, BC) - https://www.facebook.com/SeraphicNihilist
-----
Gardener - (Vernon, BC) - https://gardenerwasted.bandcamp.com "

 

See you in July!

Friday 13 January 2017

Pounding Metal Tracklist + Release Date

Very pleased to be a part of this. See below:

"Pounding Metal - A Tribute To Exciter" - limited edition CD album out on Skol Records, limited edition vinyl LP out on Empire Records on April 28, 2017. Produced by Bart Gabriel. Featuring:
Attacker "Cry Of The Banshee"
Crystal Viper "Long Live The Loud"
Evil Invaders (OFFICIAL) "Violence & Force"
Gatekeeper "Victims Of Sacrifice"
Ironsword "Death Revenge"
Masters of Disguise "Black Witch"
October 31 "Stand Up And Fight"
RAM "Beyond The Gates Of Doom"
Ranger "Evil Sinner"
Savage Master "Saxons Of The Fire"
Visigoth "Rising Of The Dead"
Vulture - High Speed Metal "Feel The Knife"


Thursday 5 January 2017

Crusading Into 2017

Welcome back.

It was a little over a year ago when Guardians of the Northwest contacted me about bringing Gatekeeper to Portland for a headlining appearance at their festival. It's amazing how quickly it all came together--finding our touring lineup, tracking down a rehearsal space, new shirt designs, The Vigilance Sessions compilation, booking the rest of the Cascadian tour and everything else that went along with it.

Afterwards, we travelled to Chicago and performed at Ragnarokkr festival to hundreds of long-haired hooligans, then proceeded to stamp our names across the Vancouver local scene with a pile of excellent other bands. We were invited to take part in Pounding Metal: A Tribute to Exciter and entered the studio under many difficult circumstances and  tracked our best sounding performance to date. One of my short stories was featured in Swords of Steel II and another one in Scrolls of Legendry. Finally, one of our tracks is featured on Metal Massacre 14 from Metal Blade Records, which is the kind of thing that most other bands only dream about. It goes without saying that 2016 was the most productive and successful year in the history of this band.

There are a great many people who deserve our thanks. Promoters, venue staff, sound engineers, the other bands we played and partied with, the kind friends who drove us to music stores in Chicago to collect our equipment rentals, anyone who let us stay under their roof, the pressing plant, the team at Harbourside Studios, Al from Spell and, of course, all the bangers who showed up to our gigs and tore the house down with us.

Last but not least, I have to thank Tommy, David, JP, Kenny and Luke for joining me on this nutty crusade. You guys are the best.

2017 is shaping up to be another busy year. We are in the midst of booking a number of tour stretches as well as finalising the material for the full-length record, plus a few other surprises. Watch this page and follow our antics on social media to stay abreast of our plans.

For now, enjoy this clip from our most recent gig. Please like, comment and share if you want to spread some true, heavy metal gospel.

Cheers!

- Jeff