CD--The Eastern Gate--Seraphim

The success of The Eastern Gate’s CD Seraphim—leaping to the top 200 best-sellers on Amazon.com within hours of release—could be dismissed as a social networking fluke. But there’s a surprise here. The music is actually quite enjoyable.

The Eastern Gate consists of Josh Peterson, Noah Kerr, Alex Linebrink, Ethan Lewis and Meredith Bogacz. The five met at Hillsdale College in Michigan, where they played local venues, cementing a mellow rock sound backed with sweeping strings. With graduation destined to split the group up, they recorded Seraphim. And sold it. A lot.

Seraphim doesn’t sound like the amateur production of college students. The music has a clear, distinctive sound reminiscent of cello rock groups like Darling Violetta. Three tracks—“Still Sailing On,” “News,” and “Rock and Roll Nun”—carry more of an 80’s rock sound, and in my opinion are the weakest tracks. But I’m a sucker for strings, so your mileage may vary.

The Eastern Gate is at their best with the soaring, string-textured sound of “Whirlwind” and “In the Way.” One can hope that the success of this CD might bring the group back together for an encore performance. I for one would love to see where they could go from here.