Progressive Rock
The Laser’s Edge · 6 November 2026
Gates Of Kiev released their first full-length, “Gates Of Kiev”, on 6 November on the US label The Laser’s Edge. It’s four long tracks, close to forty minutes: “Hamlet Burns” opens and “Drunkship Of The Mice” closes, both past the twelve-minute mark, with “Baltazar’s Feast” and “Silhouette” in between. The whole album can be streamed on the label’s Bandcamp and on the usual platforms.
Tomas Mesman (keys, lead vocals) and Hessel Braat (drums, percussion) have been friends since childhood. They found bassist Eszl de Vois on Amsterdam’s live circuit, where he was playing in the underground psychedelic scene. The Dutch trio took their name from “The Great Gates of Kiev”, the piece Emerson, Lake & Palmer included on their live album “Pictures at an Exhibition”. According to the label’s notes, the songs are mostly instrumental, and the band used the studio to layer on overdubs.
The band produced the album themselves, with Ahmad Mansour engineering at Ijland Studio. Jacob Holm-Lupo of White Willow mixed and mastered it at Dude Ranch Studio in Norway, and the cover art is by Italian illustrator Mont Doom. The band’s previous release was the two-track EP “Tales of Aion”, which they put out themselves in July 2024 with a different line-up.
Text by Guillem Cardós