A new track from THE GATES OF SLUMBER has been posted to Decibel Magazine's Deciblog. The track is called The Bringer of War, and it's from their forthcoming album Hymns of Blood and Thunder. The posting shows the album being available September 29th via Rise Above Records.
Hymns of Blood & Thunder track listing:
01. Chaos Calling
02. Death Dealer
03. Beneath the Eyes of Mars
04. The Doom of Aceldama
05. Age of Sorrow
06. The Bringer of War
07. Descent Into Madness
08. Iron Hammer
09. The Mist in the Mourning
10. Blood and Thunder
Karl Simon (Vocals/ Guitar), posted this thought about Hymns of Blood and Thunder:
For my part I started working on Hymns of Blood and Thunder, almost immediately after the Conqueror sessions. It's an odd part of my personality that I tend to hate what I've just created and always look back at previous works longingly... strange, maybe but that's just how I am. Well, Conqueror was no exception to this rule, part of me hated it until we were out on the road in support and then on the stage the songs started to make sense and take on lives of their own... that's how it's always been. Writing and recording are a fucking chore... but the chaos of the live setting makes the songs jump to life.
The odd thing here is that from the first moment I sat down to work on music for this record I knew that it was going to surpass everything on Conqueror; and in a sense it has. Even up through the challenging sessions, and they were a bitch, I knew that this material was in many ways stronger. Conqueror took some very interesting and for us, progressive turns. But for me it often seemed to get lost in a shuffle of not knowing who or what it was. The songs on Hymns know themselves and they know each other, if you follow. Chaos Calling's barking guitar is a cousin to Death Dealer's snarly chords, and in turn Death Dealer is a brother to Beneath the Eye of Mars... in the same sense that the songs on South of Heaven or Sad Wings of Destiny are related. Each of the songs goes through it's own movement. In place of "the epic song" or "the fast song" each of these takes it's turn being that: Chaos Calling is fast, but in the bridging mid-section you will be surprised by the feel change. Beneath the Eye of Mars is a grinding death march, until we invoke the deep influence of classic 70's metal in the songs pause before the final fall. Descent Into Madness invokes the crawling doom that we made on The Awakening and Suffer no Guilt... but it's got it's lush surprises as well, we've grown and being true to that we haven't forgotten all we learned. Ha, I guess you can tell that I'm excited, and I am. We took so many chances and got to do so many different things in the studio this time! Sanford was so much help and so much a part of the creative process; his production was inspired and spontaneous. There were so many times we just created an idea on the fly and walked away from it buzzing. But then there were also so many times that I was left clawing at my head with frustration... . But that's the process: you can't make a record like this without a few fits, it's just not possible... ego's have to be bashed in and invariably you have to take a shit ton of drugs.
I can tell you, I'm more in love with this right out of the box than with anything in the history of this band; I'm so into it that I've already started work on my stuff for the next record, heh... .
Well, anyway... again I can't shut up. Our grizzly snarling child: Hymns of Blood and Thunder, straight up the middle barking and bashing like a deranged Pit Bull who didn't get it's happy pill. Get ready to fail your saving throw v. shitting your pants.
--Karl
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