Bands come and go all the time. All the time. They come, then go, then come again, then go again. But if you and I were to sit down and have a chat — doesn’t that sound nice? — about bands who’ve come and gone and were unlikely to return, I’d probably have put The Gates of Slumber on that list. When the Indianapolis three-piece forerunners of doom traditionalism disbanded in 2013, then yeah, okay, maybe they’d have gotten back together, but then a few months later when bassist Jason McCash passed away, and guitarist/vocalist Karl Simon moved on to form Wretch, it just didn’t seem like the kind of thing that was ever going to happen. Then Germany called.

The Gates of Slumber will play a special set for Hell Over Hammaburg 2020. Of course the idea will be to focus on the band’s history and pay homage to McCash and the legacy of what they created in their original run. The new lineup is comprised of Simon, bassist Steve Janiak (also guitarist/vocalist of Devil to Pay and Apostle of Solitude) and drummer Chuck Brown (also guitarist/vocalist in Apostle of Solitude and drummer in an earlier incarnation of The Gates of Slumber as well), and they’ve posted a clip of some rehearsal footage on Thee Facebooks in order to get word out of the revitalization of the band.

There are always people who naysay reunions, and reunions with a new lineup as well. Whatever. The Gates of Slumber went out on the heels of their best work yet in 2011’s The Wretch (review here) — technically they also had the Stormcrow EP (review here) before they were done, but stay with me — and I think the fact that Simon went on to form Wretch is clear indication there was still more to be said there. I don’t know if they’ve even thought of working on new material, but my understanding is this is a special kind of one-off thing, they might do some dates around the festival, but basically it’s something unique for Hell Over Hammaburg next year, and that’s where it stands now. Of course we know plans can change. There wouldn’t be a reunion in the first place if that wasn’t true.

Check out the rehearsal footage below. There may also be some reissues in the works and the long-supposed live album might happen as well. I’ll hope for more to come all around.

Enjoy:

Just Announced: The Gates of Slumber to reunite for Hell Over Hammaburg 2020. More details to follow…

The Gates of Slumber on Thee Facebooks

Hell Over Hammaburg website

Tags: Indiana, Indianapolis, The Gates of Slumber

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 30th, 2019 at 9:40 am and is filed under Bootleg Theater. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.