Swedish Epic Doom Metallers SORCERER Pay Tribute To a RAINBOW Classic….

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Swedish epic doom metallers Sorcerer have released a new single – their tribute version of Rainbow‘s 1978 classic “Gates Of Babylon” – through Metal Blade Records! 

Since Sorcerer‘s latest release, Lamenting Of The Innocent (2020), (included in our greatest doom metal albums of 2020 feature) the pandemic restrictions have impacted the whole music scene and interfered with promotional aspirations and touring. While Sorcerer‘s main focus lies on creating new material for a fourth record with Metal Blade and moving forward, the vacuum of the pandemic offered the band some spare time for a fun side project.

Sorcerer‘s “Gates Of Babylon” is streaming on all digital platforms: www.metalblade.com/sorcerer

Sorcerer had been playing with the idea to do a tribute cover for quite some time. But finding time to make an arrangement, record and even choosing a song always seemed challenging; many epic tracks appealing to the members had also already been covered. To bridge the period to their new album and also to shine some light in these dark days, Sorcerer felt the time was now to put that idea into action. Once they committed to it, the song choice was actually a no-brainer. Rainbow had always been a huge inspiration for all and influenced Sorcerer since the beginning, so it felt like an obvious choice to go for their anthem “Gates Of Babylon” – a track that hasn’t lost its magic decades after its release.

Regarding this cover project, Sorcerer guitarist Kristian Niemann says: “When trying to come up with a way to arrange ‘Gates Of Babylon’ and give it a different spin, I tried to imagine what it would’ve sounded like if Tony Iommi wrote it instead of Ritchie Blackmore. It probably would’ve been slower and heavier, possibly down-tuned a bit. We skipped the keyboard intro because it would be impossible to capture the magic of the original. We had a great time recording this single at SolnaSound Studios, and overall we are very happy with how it turned out. We hope our fans will dig it too.”

Sorcerer line-up:
Anders Engberg – vocals
Kristian Niemann – guitars
Peter Hallgren – guitars
Justin Biggs – bass
Richard Evensand – drums