Gateways

According to Oxford Dictionaries, melody requires a sequence of notes to be "musically satisfying." As such, Gateways' classification as a melodic metalcore band is erroneous — problematically so, considering it's the closest to an appropriate categorization. The dilemma contained on Departures is that the melodies simply aren't musically satisfying; they sound picked out of a hat rather than from a theoretically sound musical depository. This isn't to say that the art of writing music should be reduced to a science, but there are some notes that don't go together. Gateways occasionally make it work though; "Breaking Bricks" manages to avoid the dud notes entirely and the off-kilter sounds repeated in "Insights" manage to take their own path to success. However, more often than not, Departures sounds like it was written by Counterparts, Saints Never Surrender and Taken worshippers, with slightly out-of-tune instruments.