To be honest, I thought that MAUSOLEUM GATE had thrown in the towel. This Finnish band released two exceptionally great albums back in the 10s. The self-titled album in 2014 and “Into Dark Divinity” in 2017. Since then, it’s been quite quiet except for a 7” released in 2019. Though as we are about to say farewell to 2025, they appear as a troll out of a box with a new album. The 2019 EP was a farewell to the original singer V-P Varpula and a hello to new and current singer Jarno Saarinen. Both singers are quite diverse. V-P going from classic Heavy Metal to darker doomier moods within seconds and overall, just having great vocals. Jarno reminds me of a tad of good old Ozzy Osbourne in his older days, vocals that fit the contemporary MAUSOLEUM GATE quite well. Musically we are still all over the place. Classic Heavy Metal, often with a quite epic twist, must be the main moniker. Though we are all over Psych-Rock, traditional Doom Metal, Kraut Rock – all genres that match the witchy space theme with rituals and magick, so to say. As we have gotten used to with the Finns, the songwriting is stellar. The music is catchy, progressive, exciting, playful… time flies when listening to MAUSOLEUM GATE, and there are always more details to dive into. Catchy main riffs, solid rhythms, great use of synth, mesmerizing synth landscapes when we go Robot Heavy Metal (or should we map it Demon Droid Metal) in the track ‘Shine The Night’. When it all is basic and well sounding, we have the occasional ventures into progressive Metal and Rock and well, those vocals, they just keep on growing on me. On the first album, the last track was the longest by far. On the second album we had one track close to and two above 10 minutes, with track number three ‘Apophis’ as the longest, and the last track, the title track ‘Into Dark Divinity’ clocking in 3 seconds short of ‘Apophis’. On this album the last track is again the longest, though only 08:19 minutes. Though still a venture into new land. Prog / Psych Rock with great vocals, acoustic guitars, damn good keys and a quite good feel to it. This creates a kind of JETHRO TULL-meets-URIAH HEEP vibe. Is that the path MAUSOLEUM GATE is about to walk? A new chapter of the MAUSOLEUM GATE history has been written, recorded and released – and again a chapter that will go down as great history. The songwriting, the delivery, the playfulness, the feel the music has – the seriousness of it all, the Finns led by Count LeFey, has as well. There’s something about this band and their music: www.facebook.com/mausoleumgate, www.facebook.com/cruzdelsurmusic