Location: Amsterdam
Country: Netherlands
Genre: Progressive rock
Full length: Gates of Kiev
Format: LP, CD, digital
Label: The Laser’s Edge
Release date: November 6, 2026
The garage band that could? It’s possible. Gates of Kiev was formed by a keyboardist and a drummer (Tomas Mesman and Hessel Braat) who were close friends for years beforehand. In high school, they indulged in their passion for inventive music, throwing around ideas during nocturnal garage sessions. It’s like something out of a Bill and Ted movie, in which an adolescent dream became a success story, one that can’t be denied due to an unconventional fusion of ideas exclusive to themselves and the musicians they made acquaintances with after starting out.
Assuming a seventies prog-rock style similar to Emerson, Lake & Palmer, with twists of psychedelic rock and garage punk, the band developed an intense, boisterous live presence. They brought that live presence and the grime of their garage sessions to the studio when they recorded their debut EP and their debut full length. Recorded in Holland, mixed and mastered in Norway, this album breaks rules of composing and arranging prog, incorporating their punk attitude not only into the occasionally gritty musicianship but also a seemingly disorganized, turbulent rhythm scheme that’s as erratic as it is proficient.
The informality of the garage practices stayed with the founding members as they became a full band. Their debut EP “Tales of Aion” from 2024, was structured in an orderly fashion, but they were already steering themselves toward songs that were volatile, interchangeable and epic length, with complex structure and keyboards assuming the roles of two instruments; keys and guitars. They were established with keyboard sounds that soared and dove, vocal harmonies that were beautiful and eerie, and steady bass heavy grooves under an animated succession of notes and aural effects.
On “Tales of Aion” this backbone upheld itself through each adjustment in trajectory, disappearing when a new attempt in ambient interludes took place, then re-emerged and reshaped itself. The band could go from the carnivalesque tunes of old to ELP to The Clash to something early sixties to something new and experimental, intersecting them and holding it all together with tribal drums, ambient and metallic key sounds and an unashamed sense of punk rawness. Sometimes you couldn’t tell where a song was going next; most times you couldn’t tell, and the band just kept you guessing.
On their full length they’ve kept the erratic quality of their variability, added to their fusion of styles, tightened the transitions and provided a steadier underlying groove. The material became less abrasive and more hard edged. The keyboards and bass work more closely together, time changes come at inopportune moments, songs change direction before you know it, and vocal harmonies are more pleasing and sinister. Bass lines are more pronounced and take more of an active role in directing the material. Longer instrumental sections elaborate on lyrics about private struggles and societal issues, carrying them farther with visuals complementing words.
If you like music with louder, edgier, more caustic guitars, this album may make you more interested in adding prog rock and experimental music to your playlist. -Dave Wolff
Track list:
1. Hamlet Burns
2. Baltazar’s Feast
3. Silhouette
4. Drunkship Of The Mice
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