Album Review: The Gates of Slumber – The Gates of Slumber (Svart Records)

Indiana’s true doom metal legends The Gates of Slumber return with a brand-new album out on Svart Records on November 29th, 2024. The self-titled album is the band’s first full length offering since The Wretch in 2011.

The Gates of Slumber returning after so long could be seen as a sign of an impending apocalypse, after all, their doom sound comes with the weight and the gravitas of such a scenario. Yet, this is a celebration, as one of the world’s finest doom bands emerges from their slumber and sets about wreaking havoc.

You don’t have to be a fan of The Gates of Slumber to find this album enjoyable, you just need to like doom and doom in its more classic form. Doom with power, doom with poise, and doom with purpose. Across the six epics of this album, The Gates of Slumber set out to remind all listeners that at its core, doom should make you feel like you’re wrapped in a shroud of despair, yet fully aware of a vibrancy that comes from the differing shades of gloom, and in awe of how it can be so beautiful.

If you’re nodding your head in agreement to those words, then you already know what this album has in store for you, and it is glorious.

To witness a return as powerful as this is special, but to witness it from a band who no-one expected to ever release new music again, is something else entirely. The Gates of Slumber don’t just live up to their legacy, they extend it. Delivering a cacophony of molasses-covered epic doom noise with the opening track, Embrace the Lie. Then getting a little weirder, putting the bass front and centre, and showing just how versatile this sound can be with We Are Perdition. Before unleashing some horror elements to make the gloom even more daunting with Full Moon Fever, but also offering up some old-school flair via a lengthy guitar solo.

It might not be fun, but it does thrill, and no track proves both points equally than At Dawn. A track with a dour beginning, but one that transforms into a hefty groove-tinged head banger that has a cool psychedelic tinge to the vocals. Whereas The Fog and The Plague prove themselves to be equally epic efforts. The former with its robust riffs, bone-crunching drums, and lingering vocal lines. The latter with its hardy heaviness that ebbs and flows to create a different, but hearty doom experience.

The Gates of Slumber are back, and the world may not be ready for what they are bringing!

The Gates of Slumber – The Gates of Slumber Track Listing:

1. Embrace The Lie
2. We Are Perdition
3. Full Moon Fever
4. At Dawn
5. The Fog
6. The Plague

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