Review by Rosh on December 25, 2021.

The Gates Of Slumber really are something special within metal, for their high fantasy themes combined with an unmistakable grit make them a larger than life, grandiose descendant of doom bands past, one that all the while keeps one foot in Manilla Road-ian epic heavy metal. As it happens, their sophomore album Suffer No Guilt is a dauntingly massive slab of the most authentic metal imaginable, if there ever was such a thing, and it reflects their gargantuan, legendary presence in the contemporary doom scene.

There's only six actual songs broken up by four interludes on this release, but every moment here feels insurmountable in scale and delivery, making the soundscape feel like an endless, barren battlefield littered with bodies, its horizons obscured by the smoke of black powder. It feels as though the ironclad charge of 'Angel Of Death' (which is actually the heaviest gallop-focused traditional metal-adjacent song I have ever heard) is designed to portray the carnage of battle itself and the lumbering title track after it is meant to express the devastation wrought by the bloodshed and the overall burden of war on the world. The song 'Suffer No Guilt' is probably as close as TGOS ever got to being extremely similar to their Finnish brethren Reverend Bizarre, while still being more warlike compared to the Reverend's flair of absurdism. Meanwhile, 'Riders Of Doom' is easily the strongest song on Suffer No Guilt. The instrumental 'Gemini' seems just a little too calm for there not to be a garrison of savage horsemen advancing fast, but when 'Riders...' begins, it too takes a little while to build up. Its culminating riff is a bludgeoning, confrontational one, nailing the dynamics of slow to fast transitions in doom metal, and giving way to an effective verse and chorus.

'Slay The Weak' is the weakest track here barring the interludes, but even then it's a respectable ode to barbarian ways. The Obsessed-influenced 'Wyrmwood/Dweller In The Deep', however, is the most underrated section on the album, thriving on a type of riff that is entirely disregarded in traditional doom metal, that being the chugging palm-muted riff. The notion is that notes in doom should be unmuted to create more distinctly foreboding melodies, a thicker sound more conducive to slow tempos, and to avoid sounding like slowed down thrash. It was frequently loathed when used in (actually very good) Candlemass songs like "Incarnation Of Evil", but honestly, as long as the progression you have going on is doomy and sinister, the muting makes little difference and it actually makes for a creative spin on the standard "dun-dun dun-dun" palm muted riffing of heavy metal. Anyway, 'God Wills It' is the epic here, an extremely sophisticated arrangement complete with dreary ambiance balanced against fiery storytelling. It doesn't feel like a 20 minute song, but at the same time, you can tell they were deliberately going for a long song, although that's the worst you could say of it.

Other than the strong set of songs, the heroes of this endeavor are the immovable guitar and bass tones. This band tends to favor only having one guitar track play at a time due to their lineup (though this album does contain some guitar track layering), so when the Mark Sheldon-influenced leads are squealing away with only bass and drums to back them up, you can tell the band's rhythm section is a huge factor that keeps the war mongering hordes rolling. Suffer No Guilt is awesome, crushing doom, so just listen to it and stop reading this boring review because I'm tired and I've written like 4 reviews today because I was bored.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10