Vocalist/guitarist Karl Simon of THE GATES OF SLUMBER was recently interviewed by About.com's Justin M. Norton. He discussed the making of Hymns Of Blood And Thunder; the inevitable comparisons to BLACK SABBATH and ST. VITUS and what it's like to be a generation older than many touring metal bands. Excerpts follow:

Q" The Gates of Slumber appears to be a good generation older than some of the up and coming bands. How does it feel for your career to start breaking when you are older?

A: "We’re all roughly the same age, graduated (high school) in 92-93. It’s different for kids when they see us because the bands playing for them are their peers in many cases. That’s natural. When people were seeing James Hetfield on the Kill Em’ All tour he was maybe 20 and playing for a peer group. We’re a good 15 years older than that. It does help in certain ways because we’ve been here for heavy metal. I remember being one of the last grunge-hating hold outs in high school. It was heavy metal or no music for me then. I never bought into NIRVANA or ALICE IN CHAINS. I can’t lie; I bought some of the records. But did they ever replace MOTÖRHEAD? No."

Q: Does it ever bother you that your music is always lumped in with your influences like St. Vitus and Black Sabbath or are you happy to wear those influences on your sleeve?

A: "It’s both. I’m proud that people compare us to those bands. It’s obvious that we are influenced by St. Vitus and Black Sabbath and CELTIC FROST and CIRITH UNGOL. At the same time, we’ve been pegged as St. Vitus clones. I have to wonder if these people have ever listened to a St. Vitus record. You can tell we really like them but we’re not stealing what they did. We have maybe one riff in our catalog that sounds like pure Vitus. That’s the only one where it’s straight downpegged eighth-notes. We do a lot of other things. That’s one thing that sticks in my craw. But we are still proud of the reference – I have their logo tattooed on my body. The Sabbath thing... we like Dio and even Tony Martin. I love it all, Seventh Star, Headless Cross, Eternal Idol. In the mid-90s it did get a little thin."

Q: The anticipation and buzz for this album has been pretty high – do you feel like this will be the year The Gates of Slumber breaks from a more underground audience to a more mainstream metal audience?

A: "Hopefully. We’re ready to go out and play. I’ve been saying this for a few years but I don’t know when the door is finally going to close. But we have an opportunity now because of our family and life situations."

Read the full interview at About.com.