The Wretch

The Wretch

With The Gates of Slumber’s fifth studio album, the Indiana doom-metal trio returns to its sludgy roots. “Scourge of Drunkenness” rocks like a 45 rpm vinyl single of Black Sabbath’s “Hole in the Sky” played at 33 rpm: frothy guitar distortion spills over brutal guitar riffage and slow-motion wah-wah leads. The similarly awesome “To the Rack with Them” paints pictures of medieval torture (à la Anvil’s “Thumb Hang”) before “Castle of the Devil” mixes Pentagram-inspired occult themes with slumbering, sloth-like tempos and tasteful hints of early-'70s psychedelia. The similarly foreboding “Coven of Cain” picks up the pace with a nod to the driving rhythms behind much of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, while the title track oozes a swampy sludge on par with Saint Vitus’ Hallow’s Victim.

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