The
1993 demo of the Norwegian band is an excellent example of the new Scandinavian
darkness, a raw and primitive form of blackness with some minor ’80 influences.
“Pentagram” (Vote 8.5) is the ’94 Gorgoroth’s debut, an album that
captures the black feelings of influential bands like Mayhem and Darkthrone with
a personal and recognizable mark. There
are some really new high pitched screaming, like no one heard before, and a
misanthropic, evil mood, like running in a dungeon of fear. This is a short
album but the intensity and the quality of the songs are the most important
things. A cold Nordic feeling is matched with a retro ’80 influence somewhere
emerging from the rhythms and the riffs, but notwithstanding those elements the
main part of the music is absolutely “fresh”. Gorgoroth came back in ’96
with the new album “Antichrist” (Vote 8.5), and it was a more modern, less
retro version, of the previous album music.
The lyrics and the atmospheres deal with the traditional satanism, the music is
a Norwegian type of black metal, more in the vein of the Darkthrone’s
“Transilvanian Hunger”, with less influences from the ‘80 black metal
roots. The darkness is the dominant factor in those albums, but “Antichrist”
also has a sad mood on the background, like in the Darkthrone’s masterpiece.
Fortunately Gorgoroth kept the right direction leaving apart some of their old
style roots and increasing the sombre spectre of their music, there’s the
typical true Norwegian black metal feeling like not so many band are able to
match. There are some few but interesting clean voice parts, with an obscure and
solemn tone, that perfectly fits to the dark aspect of the Gorgoroth’s music.
One
year after “Antichrist” Gorgoroth returned with the fantastic “Under the
Sign of hell”
(Vote 9), where the Norwegian black metal path of “Antichrist” is followed
in almost every song, apart from two songs with a ‘80 thrash influence.
Songs like the second and the third are masterful and sorrowful black hymns.
There is a true black madness in a song like “Blood Staines the Circle”
and there’s a destructive dramatic aura in every riff. The sound is much
more harsh then in “Antichrist”, a bit more brutal, but without losing the
right dark atmosphere.
For the band “Under..” is the third bloody demonstration of blackness,
through the years they had kept a firm direction, in a traditional Norwegian
black metal way, becoming, album after album, the most interesting answer to
the decadence of some well-known names.
Gorgoroth
signed with the big label Nuclear Blast and a lot of bad words came from the
underground, where more then one was fearing the disappearance of another cult,
but the ’98 “Destroyer” (Vote 8.5) is another black gem, a voice for the
annihilation of mankind, a battle against the religion of the weak. The harsh
progression of “Under…” is visible, apart from the moderate melodies,
that have always been part of the great Infernus’s guitar riffing and the
sound is another step more violent then in “Under…”. Two songs are a
storm of northern chaos, a maelstrom of evilness, with the right sharp black
sound. The title-track have a drum-machine and a riffing that kills, but the
newest thing is the stylistic difference between the songs, remaining in the
black metal circle. “Destroyer” is a mix of sharp melodies and harshness,
an album that is probably the most extreme release for the band to date. In
2001 came–out “Incipit Satan” (Vote 7.5), not surely the most exciting
album for Infernus and co., they chose a death metal studio and the result was
a hybrid sound, without the same sharpness of the previous “Destroyer”,
and without the raw, rough right sound that made black metal so unique.
Another time every song is different from the others, one recalls the best
Burzum, another one is oppressive and repetitive, the title-track have guitar
stops and one is the typical melodic, dramatic Gorgoroth’s black metal song.
The rawest song hasn’t the same incredible mood of the previous similar
masterpieces, so after all “Incipit Satan” remains the bottom of the
Gorgoroth’s carrier.
There
are some really new high pitched screaming, like no one heard before, and a
misanthropic, evil mood, like running in a dungeon of fear. This is a short
album but the intensity and the quality of the songs are the most important
things. A cold Nordic feeling is matched with a retro ’80 influence somewhere
emerging from the rhythms and the riffs, but notwithstanding those elements the
main part of the music is absolutely “fresh”. Gorgoroth came back in ’96
with the new album “Antichrist” (Vote 8.5), and it was a more modern, less
retro version, of the previous album music.