Good to see these guys getting a bunch of buzz lately, and even having a video air on Headbangers Ball! The Indiana doom metallers have been at this for years, honing their old school doomcraft well below the radar of almost all but the most devout doom fans with their excellent debut The Awakening through Suffer No Guilt. Now on a new label (the currently shit-hot Profound Lore) and with the best set of jams so far, The Gates Of Slumber give us their third slab Conqueror, a dose of true old school doom that you'd normally have to travel as far as Sweden to get (or worse yet, Maryland). Heavy as bricks with sludgy riffage and psych leads rooted in the grand Sabbathian tradition and a knack for great melodic hooks. The singer for Gates, Karl Simon, has a deep soulful style that reminds me of Wino from The Obsessed/Saint Vitus a little, but it hardly sounds forced...and the imagery and lyrics behind Conqueror are heavily inspired by classic pulp fantasy fiction, primarily that of Robert E. Howard's Conan The Barbarian, though there is a song here called "Children Of Satan" that deals with the genocide in Darfur. Musically, these are some of their strongest songs, like

the aforementioned "Children Of Satan" and it's a galloping NWOBHM-tinged rocker with a ridiculously catchy chorus you won't shake for days..."Ice Worm" delivers the lumbering doomy heaviness a la Saint Vitus..."The Machine" is another faster number with catchy early Maiden/Dio riffage...and the closing tracks make up the epic "Dark Valley Suite", which is a dark, multi-sectioned tribute to author Robert E. Howard, but instead of dwelling on his Conan character for the song's lyrics, the lyrics actually deal with the tragic life of Howard and includes a recitation of part of a one of his poems. Awesome. Also awesome are the detailed liner notes that appear in the booklet, all written by Simon. For each song, he provides these great, detailed anecdotal notes that describe the thought processes behind the song, what bands might have influenced them, etc, which makes for an interesting accompaniment to the music. This'll probably go down as the doom metal album of the year, I know it's already on a bunch of hacks year-end lists, and anyone into classic doom and metal like Saint Vitus, Pentagram, Cirith Ungol, Witchfinder General, Sabbath, and The Obsessed do not want to miss out on this.