Gates of Ishtar was formed in Lulea, north of Sweden, late 1992 under the name Disrupt. At that time the band consisted of: Mikael Sandorf (vocals), Andreas Johansson (drums), Tomas Jutenfäldt (lead guitar), Stefan Nilsson (guitar) and Harald Åberg (bass).

Stefan and Harald later left the band and Andreas Johansson switched from drums to guitars. The drums were then dominated by Oscar Karlsson (Defleshed, The Everdawn) and Niklas Svensson (Throne of Ahaz, The moaning) took care of the bass.

In May 1995, ”Seasons of Frost” was recorded at Lucichrist studio. This demo led to the group’s contract for its first full-length album on the Finnish label Spinefarm Records. In 1996, their debut album, ”A Bloodred Path” was recorded in the Finnish studio Tico-Tico and released by Spinefarm in June 1996. Gates of Ishtar later switched to the German label Invasion Records. A contract for two full-length albums was signed, and the band started to work on their second album, ”The Dawn of Flames”.

Before the work on their second album began, Oscar and Niklas left the band for other ventures. Henrik Åberg, who was their current live guitarist at the time was recruited to play the drums. Still missing a bass guitarist, Tomas asked an old friend, Danjel Röhr, to perform as a session musician on the recording of ”The Dawn of Flames”. In early 1997, the band travelled to Örebro to record at Unisound Studios. On March 25, 1997, the album “Dawn of flames” was released worldwide.

In February 1998 the third album “At dusk and forever” was released by Invasion Records, and shortly afterwards Gates of Ishtar  disbanded.

Many years later, the band was supposed to be reunited for an anniversary show in 2015 at Party-San festival in Germany, celebrating the 20:th anniversary of “A bloodred path” album, but sadly Oscar Karlsson died before any rehearsals could take place and the reunion never became a reality. Still these plans opened up the members minds to future endeavours and when the offer to play at House Of Metal festival in Sweden came in November 2023, the band decided that nothing would stop them from playing together again.

In order to find the perfect candidate for their new drummer, the obvious choice had to be someone that could do Oscars parts justice and knew the songs by heart. Fredrik Andersson (Skaburban Collective, The Duskfall) was the perfect match both musically and on a personal level for this task.

November 2023, the band played their first show in almost 3 decades at House Of Metal festival and the response from the crowd was overwhelming. During this magical evening the band realised that they had to go on and see where this newfound energy would take them.

Since this only was supposed to be a one off show, Niklas Svensson gave the band the heads up that he would not be able to fulfil his duties as bass player in the band due to the fact that he has 2 other touring bands that takes up all of his time.
Once more the band decided to go for a great guy with stage presence and musicality that fits the bands energy perfectly. Markus Parkkila (Helltrain, Vengeance) joined the band and the work on new music began.

In March 2025 Gates of Ishtar signed a contract with the Circle Music, Greece for a new album. It will be the first new release in almost 3 decades and will continue on the sonic path the band treaded back in the 1990’s. The album will be released in February 2026.