November is Doom - The Gates of Slumber : "S/T"

 

I am not sure why I have never spent much time with this band, given the fact I love doom so much. They have kept this doom machine in motion since 97, so these guys know what they are doing. If you took the despair of Wino-era St Vitus and gave it Crowbar's guitar heft the results might be similar to what is being thrown down on this album. The vocals have purpose and care about writing songs, which 2024 puts them ahead of the pack. The vocals are given ample love  They plod into more despair for "We Are Perdition" which works better as a song for me than "Full Moon Fever", not that "Full Moon Fever" is a bad song, it just falls more alone predictable doom cliches and does not play to the band's strength's as much as the previous song which wallows in the misery in the best way possible. 

"At Dawn' finds the pace pick up into a grooving chug that works well. It proves you can capture the feel of doom, without always being at a snail's pace. The dark mood is not detoured by the more classic metal feel of the guitar riffing, even when it wanders off into a guitar solo. Lyrically it works well, the vocals are emoted in a manner that creates the needed hooks. The plodding creep of the guitar that leads into "the Fog" falls under what you expect from doom. There are hints of Sabbath in the drumming, but nothing really overt in the vocals or guitar, aside from it being doom. Once the song finds its groove it works well enough but we have heard stronger moments already on this album. Maybe it works better live? There is a pretty decent guitar solo on this one if you are into that sort of thing. 

They close out the album with "The Plague". The vocals have a more soulful Wino-like plea to them. It moves at a funeral march. Things are as downtrodden as you might hope for when it comes to this. Three minutes into this one it builds up, as the drums stir things up.  This drummer is the VIP of this album as he is working overtime to hold this together and keep the dynamics coming.   Overall the strong songs balance the less inspired moments, which never suck they just fall in line too closely into the color-by-numbers doom, by two of the six songs do this, so I will still give this one an 8.5, as the excellent moments are strong enough to compensate for this. 

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