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On disc: Gorgoroth



Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt - Carsten Bahr - 8 stars


www.gorgoroth.info







Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt

Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt
(Regain Records - 2009)


The leal battle about the name rights is now over. Singer Gaahl and guitarist King lost the legal battle and so founding member Infernus owns the name Gorgoroth. While the legal battle continued Infernus was looking for new band members and started writing new songs. That's a surprise, coz Gaahl and King said they fired Infernus because he was lazy, unmotivated and didn't contribute to the songs. Within the short period of time Infernus found some renown musicians to join him. So ex-singer Pest is back as well as former guitarist Tormentor. On drums is Tomas Asklund (ex-Dissection, ex-Dark Funeral) and Obituary bassist Frank Watkins complete the line-up. Musically they are varying and get back to the time before Gaahl took over the microphone. No big surprise that Infernus won't stick to the sound of Gaahl and King, so they reduced the speed and again present majestic mid-tempo parts. The production is very clear, so that you can hear details of every instrument which makes the guitar sound more powerful. Pest is still mean, screaming and scolding, so you won't miss Gaahl at all. So Gorgoroth are far away from the rough sound of Under The Sign Of Satan, but the album is still dark and diabolic. So you can still call it true Norwegian black metal. The melodic guitar work makes the songs more diverse and so you never get the feeling to listen to the same ol' song. Prayer is quite melodic, Building A Man is slowly sneaking into your brain and the groove-based New Breed makes you think of Satyricon. The slower passages are dominating the album and sometimes sound a little like Immortal, but that didn't do the album any harm. Gorgoroth always had a unique sound and they still have. The closer Satan Prometeus shows them fast, but they only storm off for a moment, never keep up the speed for a whole song. Personally I would have preferred more fast songs, but Gorgoroth decided to present some dark, threatening atmospheric tune. So fans who just like their blast attacks will be disappointed - I really miss the hyper-fast parts. Anyway, the band delivered a more then decent true black metal album and add elements from every chapter of their career, but give the songs more space for atmospheric sounds and depth. An interesting new chapter in the Gorgoroth career, no masterpiece, but a well-done 'comeback'!


8 stars

Carsten Bahr
(translation: Claudia Ehrhardt)
 

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