The Gates of Slumber - Conqueror
Profound Lore - 19 May 2008
By Brandon Peters
The newest album by the mighty
Gates of Slumber has some to be something that was half expected because
Conqueror has much more heavy metal in this album than their previous releases. It’s pretty much a combination of all of Simon’s favourite bands mixed together. The album is centered around mythical warriors, yet deviates quite a bit from their other lyrics (
'Children of Satan' is a perfect example of this)
The songwriting in this album is just superb. The band perfectly blends heavy metal riffs with some nice slow doom riffs. The bass lines are used perfectly which underlie the riffs. They kind of let the bass play the riff while Simon does his thing over it. One thing on this album that must be noted is the perfect use of
Saint Vitus-ish solos. They are blended in with all the riffs to perfection, and the riffs switch from the smooth
Saint Vitus style to upbeat
Cirith Ungol type. That being said, this release is completely Gates of Slumber. The production of this album is grand, because it sounds like it’s right out of the 70s; this sets the mood for the album.
The album as a whole is fucking solid. Many head banging riffs, great vocal lines, and fist pumping choruses. The one beef I have with this album is the ‘heart felt’ acoustic passage in
'The Dark Valley Suite'. Karl’s vocals are just bad here, and I cringe almost every time; I can feel the emotion in this, but it’s just very poorly executed. To end the review on a good note, if you are not air guitaring or headbanging through the album, you’re not into metal!
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