Based out of the bustling New Jersey music/college town of New Brunswick, alternately soaring and hard-hitting post-rock five-piece Gates formed in 2011 around the talents of guitarist Dan King, bassist Mike Maroney, Daniel Crapanzano, guitarist Ethan Koozer, and guitarist/vocalist Kevin Dye. Employing a heady blend of math-tinged post-hardcore, indie rock, ambient pop, and emo, the group issued a pair of EPs (The Sun Will Rise and Lead Me Home [2011] and You Are All You Have Left to Fear [2013]) before inking a deal with Pure Noise Records, which reissued the EPs as well as Gates’ debut long-player, Bloom & Breathe, in 2014. In 2016, Gates returned with their sophomore full-length album, Parallel Lives, featuring the single “Habit.” ~ James Christopher Monger