All Right, We'll Bite: What Is The Deathgate & What Happens When It 'Opens'?

20 June 2017 | 3:51 pm | Staff Writer

Perhaps it is some kind of walking clock

Once upon a time, bands would put music out, and we'd write about it, and let you know who was doing what and when. It was simple. Effective. Efficient. Those days are not entirely gone, but they're evidently in their twilight.

Now, it's a whole thing, built around fan engagement and #content and "going viral" and other complexities like mysterious websites designed to send people on online treasure hunts for answers, which, look, is great if that's up your alley.

With that in mind, here's "The Deathgate", the existence of which we've been tipped off to along with precisely no other information, save for the fact that it's to do with a mystery musician or musicians, and an equally enigmatic upcoming project.

The site explains that the Deathgate "draws near", and it's counting down to its 'opening', presumably, in 10 days — well, nine and a bit, now — and who knows what happens then? (Probably an album of some kind or… something, though there are a few clues hidden among the website as to the identity of its maker and what they might be leading up to.)

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For our part, we've found an image file in the page's source code (the base image for which also serves as the website's primary background) emblazoned with the words "WE SUFFER TOGETHER" (see bottom of article; click for full size in case you want to try to Mad-fold-in that business or otherwise manipulate/mess around with it for possible clues).

We also decoded the background noise, which explains the following in the "audio log" of a mysterious engineer (997482, just in case that has relevance) when sped up and played the right way around:

"If you’re listening to this, it means you’ve been jettisoned from hypersleep like myself. As you may have gathered, we’ve landed on our new home, or crash-landed.. Something has gone wrong with the navigation systems, I gather, and the impact has fractured our bio-core.

"I was the only one to be woken up from hypersleep; so far I haven’t been able to identify why. But tomorrow I shall venture to the surface and see if I can't gather the materials required to build a new bio-core. Oh, and, if you’re hearing this, I’m dead. I’ll try to leave myself somewhere where I’d like you to build the mural."

From the voice in the audio, it's probably safe to assume this is an Australian artist. We're happy to put the ball in the internet's court from here as far as figuring out the identity of the person or people behind this, though.

Oh, and just a time-saving heads-up: the domain was registered through one of those 'protect your privacy' firms, so we couldn't even cheat and find out who bought the URL. C'est la vie.

Anyway, we have work to do, so… good luck. Let us know if you figure it out.