Indiana-based doom metal trio, The Gates Of Slumber, return with their eponymous new full-length, set for release on November 29 via Svart Records. The record serves as the band’s first new output since 2011’s The Wretch, and their sixth overall.

In advance of the record’s release, the band has shared their second single, “Full Moon Fever”, perfectly timed for the Halloween season.

Comments founding guitarist/vocalist Karl Simon, “If my memory serves me right, ‘Full Moon Fever’ was the first song for the new album. The music was written around about when Tom Petty died. And yes, the song is dedicated to him. Not inspired by his music per se, but I was always a big Petty fan and yeah. Figure it out on your own time… The first set of lyrics I did for the song had more of a comical feel to them. More of a Motörhead treatment: A werewolf chasing cars and shit like that. But that’s not the feel I wanted for the song in the end. The band was always meant to be a serious band. But I would be denying the truth if I said that it didn’t have a lot of tongue in cheek moments. That wasn’t what we wanted to do with it at all. Part of the fun is playing it straight. So, I reworked the lyrics a few weeks before we actually recorded the album. I have to pat myself on the back. I think the break down is one of the best bits I ever came up with.”

Stream/download the single here, and listen below:

The Gates Of Slumber was formed by Karl Simon in 1998. Various people were in and out of the group between 1998 and 2001, when the Blood Encrusted Deth Axe demo was recorded with Jamie Walters of Boulder on drums and Dr. Phibes/Athenar (later to form the cult black metal band Midnight) on bass. In 2003 Jason McCash took over the bass duties and was a long-time member of the band until his untimely demise in 2014, after which Simon decided it was time to call it quits.

That was until 2019 when the renowned metal festival Hell Over Hammaburg wanted to bring the band back on stage to perform at the festival’s 2020 edition. Simon reformed the band with its original drummer Chuck Brown and bassist Steve Janiak. “We’d been asked several times to play Hell Over Hammaburg. But there was no “we” to play. The germ of the idea started. We started re-learning songs from the first LP. It wasn’t too long into the rehearsals that we started coming up with new songs,” states Simon.

Following a short reunion tour, the COVID pandemic decelerated the band’s writing process. Half of the album was written however the remaining half was left to stew in its juices. But they toiled on ultimately composing six wholly engrossing new hymns of true doom metal excellence. With chest quaking songs honoring such greats as Saint Vitus and Penance, straight forward bangers, and lyrics inspired by the Black Death and John Carpenter’s The Fog, The Gates Of Slumber is a truly crushing work to behold.

The Gates Of Slumber is available on Svart exclusive black/white marble vinyl, limited transparent blue vinyl, black vinyl, CD, and digital platforms on November 29. Pre-save the digital edition here, and pre-order the physical edition here.

Tracklisting:

"Embrace The Lie"
"We Are Perdition"
"Full Moon Fever"
"At Dawn"
"The Fog"
"The Plague"

"Embrace The Lie" visualizer:

(Photo - Marshall Kreeb)