Review The Gates of Slumber - Hymns of Blood and Thunder 2009

Tracks:
1. Chaos Calling
2. Death Dealer
3. Beneath the Eyes of Mars
4. The Doom of Aceldama
5. Age of Sorrow
6. The Bringer of War
7. Descent Into Madness
8. Iron Hammer
9. The Mist in the Mourning
10. Blood and Thunder

Band:
Karl Simon - Guitar & Vocals
Jason McCash - Bass
"Iron" Bob Fouts - Drums

Discography:
Blood Encrusted Deth Axe (Demo, 2000)
Sabbath Witch (Demo, 2002)
The Cloaked Figure (Demo, 2004)
The Awakening (2004)
Like a Plague upon the Land (EP, 2005)
God Wills It (EP, 2006)
Suffer no Guilt (2006)
Villain, Villain (Best of, 2007)
From the Ultima Thule (Split, 2007)
Conqueror (2008)
The Ice Worm's Lair (EP, 2008)
Chronicles of True Doom (Best of, 2009)

Guests:

Info:
Recorded in Chicago's Semaphore Studios with producer Sanford Parker

Released: 14/9-2009
Reviewed: 22/2-2010

Links:
thegatesofslumber.com
myspace
rise above records

Gates of Slumber, that would indicate that we have to deal with some tiresome music here. Hymns of Blood and Thunder also sounds quite a bit like a cliché name but that is of course not what we are to look at here, it is the music of this band who have their roots in the United States of America.

As the name would seem to indicate, this band have their position in the doomy side of the metal tree. They take their stance in the slower and heavy, moaning type of doom where we have seen bands like Candlemass or Cathedral. The thing is though that this band is not firmly placed in that place, they make small exploratory trips into the faster regions of the genre as well. It is quite varied musically, still it overall has a dark and sort of underground feel to it, the production seems to be set to bring this out.

At first I did think this record was a bit undefined or unfocused due to many different styles on this same record. Though, after some times listening through this record and can clearly state that it actually despite this feel of many different styles, this record actually feels rather composed and well thought out. And it is clearly a rather good record.

It is a record that opens with a track that is called Chaos Calling which according to me is the best track on this record, it is a song in the Candlemass vein, however it is a bit faster than the Swedes. Then throughout this record the styles differ and the songs pass thorugh one another. I don’t really want to name anymore tracks by name, they are mostly good tracks and none of them really stand out from the other tracks.

This record has a small problem which is that in some of the passages the pace gets so low that you risk being both bored and tired. This makes me place the rating firm in the middle of our scale.

This is a decent record, especially if you manage to stay awake.

HHHHHHH