SHIT AND SHINE
Cherry
(Riot Season)

THE DEVIL AND THE SEA
Heart Vs Spine
(AND)

LATITUDES
Bleak Epiphany in Slow Motion
(Shelsmusic)

THE GATES OF SLUMBER
Conqueror
(Profound Lore)

DEICIDE
Till Death Do Us Part
(Earache)

MOURNING BELOVETH
A Disease for the Ages 

(Grau)

AVSKY
Malignant

(Moribund)

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So I was in a work meeting this morning. We had been there for almost an hour so I was getting bored. Then someone asked the boss of bosses some sort of indiscreet work-related question. I am not sure what it was, but it took the boss about twenty eerie seconds to speak up. When he did, after rubbing his chin with his thumb, he said; ‘when you are at the altar and you say ‘I do’, it’s supposed to be forever. But it doesn’t always work that way.’  Even after the answer I had no idea what the hell they were talking about, but for some reason I thought about two bands, The Gates of Slumber and Metallica.  I thought about Metallica because my boss’s statement rang true. I was thinking of metal and of the loyalty musicians are supposed to feel towards it. Unleashing a few thrash metal classics granted Metallica with the sort of prestige only one band every two decades is awarded.  But by now a respectable portion of Metallica fans feel like all that's a thing of the past; especially after Lars Ulrich went after their fanbase with the whole Napster thing, and more so after the band dumped on us such god awful turds as Load and Reload. In other words, despite their name, the relationship is not forever. The bond has been broken.

I thought about The Gates of Slumber because I’d been listening to the former’s last slab of classic metal for a couple of days. I was familiar with their previous I Hate release Suffer No Guilt, which I found enjoyable but, truth be told, I wasn’t all into it. I had heard only great things about Conqueror and after checking them out is obvious they are in this marriage for all the right reasons. As their look reveals these are lifers that believe in one thing only; the power of the sword, which can be allegorically taken as the power of the guitars. And as the cover of Conqueror reveals it, the sword grants you two things; power over others, such as the ability to behead your enemies and the power to conquer hearts. Especially if they belong to voluptuous women who will surely, fall naked to your knees at the swing of the sword (read; power of the riff.

Conqueror is classic metal. Battle metal. Epic not in proportion but by its most authentic aural aesthetics, The Gates of Slumber scream purity. Their music grows hair on your back, turns khakis into denim and plastic necklaces into spikes.  The Gates of Slumber hail from Indianapolis and specialize in very classic sounding doom. By this I mean they are not about minimalizing their metal until the interaction between instruments has been deconstructed to disparate and atonal riffs and turtle-paced drumming. In many ways, their sound is akin to that of the Obsessed and Saint Vitus, but in the same way those two worshipped at the feet and tried to keep the spirit or Black Sabbath alive The Gates of Slumber make music for the ages. These and those to come.

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