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Review Summary: Great songwriting, terrible production. I'm just gonna break the review into several broader categories for this one to hopefully make the review comprehensive and coherent for this album. The album being the first Infernus wrote the majority of since Under The Sign Of Hell, I was interested to hear where the band was going since Gaahl and King had hijacked it on the previous albums. The bottom line (if you don't want to read the details and whole review) is that the album is a continuation of the first three full lengths, the only thing that has changed is the production. The riffing and vocal delivery have returned to a classic Gorgoroth sound.
Songwriting (B+):
Infernus' riffing here sounds just as good as it ever has. The guitars often harmonize on dark harmonies that flow naturally from one chord to the next. Generally tremolo picking and palm muted chord "stabs" (think of riffs where accented power chords have fast palm muted notes between them). There are some thrashy sounding riffs here too, which are much appreciated since Gorgoroth ALWAYS had a thrashy dirty feel to them in the old days. So the riffing here really is what you would expect from Infernus, there even some lead parts that remind of the song "Gorgoroth" off Antichrist which showcased some of the lead work on older albums. The drumming here is basic, however the actual rhythms and patterns aren't the problem, the problem is in the absolutely terrible production of the drums which I'll discuss later. Otherwise drumming is competent, it is there as a supporting instrument and keeps driving riffs along and giving some of the thrashy riffs a nice solid base. Vocal delivery is also well done, phrases are similar to old material and Pest definitely hasn't lost his touch since last appearing on a Gorgoroth release. Everything in the songwriting department will make fans of old Gorgoroth pleased with the record. However...
Production (D):
Absolutely atrocious. This is the only possible reason I can think of that would lead people to say this is nothing like the old material. It is absolutely wrong, it doesn't fit the songs, the band, the feeling of the songs. There are absolutely NO MIDS on this album. Everything sounds isolated from everything else. No atmosphere, guitars are distinct from vocals, distinct from drums, and the bass is pretty much not there. Drums are triggered to hell, sounds like a drum machine ffs. Nothing bleeds together like on Pentagram or Antichrist, it's produced like a power metal album, not a black metal album. This really hurts the overall presentation of the album, it's aggravating to think how good the album could have been if only it had been mastered mid 90s by Pytten in Grieghallen. The production definitely brings a commercial sound to the album, it's empty, it has no depth, it's too distinct and obvious, there is nothing mysterious about how the instruments interplay.
Overall (C+):
It's a well written album with crap production. Fans of Gorgoroth will appreciate the release is it is far better than the last few albums, however it fails to reach the greatness of the older albums due to the terrible production work. Fans of Gorgoroth should look into this, those who are hoping for a return to the glory days of the mid 90s will find that it does fall short sadly.
| other reviews of this album |
Wizard (2)
Gorgoroth’s fate is decided and Infernus has decided to make the band suck....
ImpendingSpoon321 (4)
Evil, heavy, melodic, satan, satan, satan, etc....
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never could stand Gorgoroth regardless who was in it. cool review.
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Love the grading. Solid review, the samples I heard from this didnt sound too bad, still need to give this a shot.
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Gorgorofl
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The production is what makes this and all modern black metal actually listenable unlike 90s black metal though..?
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i wouldn't mind it if my child was named gorgoroth
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I haven't given this a full listen yet, but when I do, I doubt it'll be better than a 2.5. Review is good as always. On another note, where have you been dude?
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I wouldn't mind if Carnfiex, both the band and user got hit by a train.
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The production is what makes this and all modern black metal actually listenable unlike 90s black metal though..?
except a lot of modern black metal tries harder to make even shittier and more laughable production values than 90s black metal cuz they want to be exactly like Burzum and other influential bands.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
"The production is what makes this and all modern black metal actually listenable unlike 90s black metal though..?"
Depends, lots of the smaller underground bands still have really lo fi production, it just seems like all the old Norwegians are going for a polished sound. I think 90s black metal is easily listenable, the sound is a whole, not every instrument being an individual. I think black metal is more to be interpreted as a soundscape and not as instruments playing distinct melodies and rhythms.
"I haven't given this a full listen yet, but when I do, I doubt it'll be better than a 2.5. Review is good as always. On another note, where have you been dude?"
Upper division computer engineering in college happened. :P
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Anyone who listens to soundwaves with two ears.
(or at least they should haha)
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
Nice review and welcome back from hiatus. It's good to see a positive review counteract that awful person who gave this a two.
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I wouldn't mind if Carnfiex, both the band and user got hit by a train.
Cool story, bro.
except a lot of modern black metal tries harder to make even shittier and more laughable production values than 90s black metal cuz they want to be exactly like Burzum and other influential bands.
Yeah, and those bands are even worse than their 90s counterparts as a result. Black metal with polished production is the only black metal even bothering with tbh, I don't need to hear the wind blowing through the forests of norway in my music kthx.
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shut the fuck up
Cool story, bro.
About the review, I like the whole grade school rating scale. More reviewers should try it out.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
obvious troll is obvious
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The production is what makes this and all modern black metal actually listenable unlike 90s black metal though..?
looooool
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Not trolling whatsoever though..?
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
You're obivously an idiot then and I advise you to shut up before you humiliate yourself further.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Get em' Wiz!
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
The kid is talking about black metal like he knows a thing or two about it.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
This statement alone proves he knows nothing about black metal:
Yeah, and those bands are even worse than their 90s counterparts as a result. Black metal with polished production is the only black metal even bothering with tbh, I don't need to hear the wind blowing through the forests of norway in my music kthx.
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