Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Country: USA
Genre: Black metal
Full length: Cannibal Galaxy
Format: Digital album
Label: Independent
Release date: March 13, 2026
Osmium Gate from Salt Lake City, Utah offers a fresh perspective on black metal, composing instrumental pieces with raw, atmospheric, melodic, and symphonic elements. The songs on their debut full-length album “Cannibal Galaxy” are instrumentals that tell stories without lyrics or vocals, relying on guitars, bass, and drums to communicate with the listener. This approach to black metal lifts its limitations, allowing them to express themselves and embellish their ideas.
When guitarist/bassist Drew Ehrgott began writing for this album, he had concepts in mind he felt could be expressed rather than lyricized. In an interview the band did for Off Shelf, he said he channeled emotion into the material through a stream-of-consciousness process, adding that this gave him more inspiration than he would have had otherwise and helped him complete the album with expedience.
What most makes his project stand out is that Ehrgott essentially does the work of three or four band members, filling roles as guitarists, bassist, and frontman. Handling lead and rhythm guitars, he works overtime to fill the void left by the absence of vocals and lyrics. The appeal of “Cannibal Galaxy” lies in the fact that the material was born from sudden inspiration, without overthinking or overplanning.
Such was the strength of what he created that he felt he only needed a competent drummer to complete the recording, rather than a full band. Relying on each other in relative isolation and sharing a common vision helped them reach into the infinite within themselves.
Ehrgott plays an almost unlimited amount of lead passages in these songs, often overlapping parts within a single part. There’s a real sense of traveling through the cosmos with nothing but your own consciousness to keep you company, feeling your awareness expand ever outward, perpetually opening and reaching out until it becomes one with the infinite. If this could be expressed in novel or movie form, the closest analogy would be what David Bowman experienced in “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
As the drummer, Rene Gomez plays a crucial role and goes all out to keep pace with Ehrgott. You can hear him playing harder and louder to give the material additional push, working harder than usual to complement Ehrgott’s intricate, complex songwriting. His blast beats and drumming are written and arranged around the guitar riffs, and he’s given free reign to accentuate his playing and help make the music sound more epic with as many fills as he deems appropriate.
It's unclear whether “Cannibal Galaxy” will ultimately revolutionize extreme metal, but at the least it’s opening doors for bands to experiment. It’s likewise apparent that Osmium Gate has only scratched the surface of what they’re capable of. –Dave Wolff
Lineup:
Drew Ehrgott: Guitar, bass
Rene Gomez: Drums
Track list:
1. Waters of Natron
2. Sailing Stone
3. Booming Dunes
4. Whale Fall
5. Nacreous
6. Blood Rain
7. Cannibal Galaxy
8. Lights Over Hessdalen
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