Review Summary: Gorgoroth at their weakest point....
There's no denying that Gorgoroth made a huge splash in the early Norwegian black metal scene. Their first 3 albums,
Pentagram,
Antichrist, and
Under the Sign of Hell are all classic type albums throughout the 90's. They lost a little steam after that with
Destroyer and
Incipit Satan, but then redeemed themselves with
Twilight of the Idols and
Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam, which was their best album since
Under the Sign of Hell by far. But sadly after Gaahl left the band, it's been all downhill ever since.
Much like the previous album, Gorgoroth fall into the same traps a lot of modern black metal bands fall into. Boring riffs, constant blast beating, and no passion in the music whatsoever. The passion and emotion from their early albums is completely absent. Not even that they haven't released great albums since the first 3 because they have, but this just lacks anything worth coming back to. Don't get me wrong, there's some decent riffs scattered throughout the album, but not enough to keep it interesting. And while the vocals aren't too bad, there's nothing special about them. No variety, just a decent scream that manages to get the job done.
Instinctus Bestialis isn't an awful album, it's really not. There's just nothing that's interesting about these guys anymore and nothing that hasn't been heard hundreds of times before. And don't get me wrong, some of the Norwegian bands can still pull off this same exact sound to this day, most notably 1349 and Mayhem, but Gorgoroth is pretty much a gimmick at this point. Infernus seems to just be content with putting out mediocre music while still using the Gorgoroth moniker. So my main point is, if you're an established black metal fan you should stay away from this. New black metal listeners, this could be a decent starting point because it's accessible, but just know there's much better albums out there that the genre has to offer.
