GORGOROTH

"Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam" is the first GORGOROTH release on Regain Records; three years had passed since the previous, sixth album. Hardly anyone expected categorical or fundamental changes in the band's music. You didn't expect them?.. And rightly so. Yet certain caveats are in order. While during the era of the first four releases, and partly the fifth, we can speak of the band as purveyors of raw and very angry true Norwegian black metal with an ineffable sinister atmosphere — the first two releases standing out especially — in 2003 GORGOROTH introduced considerable technicality into their music: the sound became cleaner, Gaahl's vocals lower and less extreme, elements of death metal crept in, but it was definitely too early to speak of the Norwegians shifting in that direction. And the present work is proof of that. GORGOROTH remain firmly in the black metal camp — before us are eight tracks with a total running time of just over 30 minutes. The guitar parts are once again quite clean, yet in places elements of the sound remind us of the band's mid-'90s output. The proportion of technical priority in the sound is decidedly lower than three years ago. Now for the main surprise — the composition "White Seed" stands out from the entire album with its terribly raw, ear-piercing sound and a strange effect of mismatched parts. Either the engineer deliberately achieved this during mastering, or mastering for this track was absent entirely. Incidentally, the vocal delivery recalls Gaahl's singing style from 1998-2000. Otherwise, it is distinctive black metal with not particularly high-pitched yet aggressive vocals; at times the drums shift into pounding blasts — in the composition "Untamed Forces," for instance, there is a typically death metal opening, and even the vocal part is delivered in low growl. On the album cover we see a vampire sinking his teeth into his victim — quite allegorical, given that Gaahl spent several months in prison for assault with the intent to drink someone's blood (since a Norwegian prison is something like a comfortable resort, one can afford to play the clown; Infernus received a sentence the same year, but both musicians were free again within months). In the booklet, as usual, you will NOT find a single lyric. Incidentally, the drum parts on this album were performed by Frost, who had previously worked with GORGOROTH as a session drummer on their second album.