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Now that's the stuff.  Several weeks ago I saw people discuss this album and the praise was almost unanimous, but I never got around to checking it out - mainly because there's only 24 hours in a day.  Simply put, this is traditional Heavy Metal mixed with a large dose of Doom Metal.  There's an omnipresent, albeit subtle feel of 70s Black Sabbath in most songs - even the vocal style; the vocalist sounds nothing like Ozzy, but some of his vocal melodies keep reminding me of his early work.  All the vocals here are clean - very clean in fact, but rather dark even for the most upbeat passages.  This style definitely adds a lot to the doomy feel of the album.  A perfect match for the equally "clean" music - the band plays tight as hell, not a note sounding out of place, with a clear sound that is thankfully not over-polished, leaving room for a bit of raw aggressiveness and sheer heaviness that one expects from a metal album with balls.

Conqueror's atmosphere is dark and sometimes a bit "apocalyptic" (for lack of a better word), mostly a slow to mid-paced affair that occasionally kicks it up a notch into faster, more upbeat style ("Children of Satan" is a good example - and one of my favourite songs on the album.)  The band successfully mixes the dark, somewhat occult sound of late 70s metal with a hint of 80s metal anthems (check out those air guitar-inducing solos springing out of nowhere), and the 2000's sound with modern production. At times I'm reminded of Goat Horn (R.I.P.), who played a similar style of metal, but I must say The Gates of Slumber are light years ahead in terms of songwriting and playing, Goat Horn having a less "polished" style (which still kicks serious amount of ass, don't get me wrong.)  That's the closest comparison to another band I can come up with.  The album is a bit on the long side at a little over an hour in playing time, but even though it feels long, it does so in a good way - not something you'll hear me say very often.  Speaking of which, I don't like reading nor writing long reviews, and there's no way to do this band and album justice in words alone, so go check 'em out.  Now.  Go!