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On 8/19/2017 at 10:21 PM, Vampyrique said:

I'm not sure which is my favourite of theirs but I tend to prefer Antichrist, Under the Sign of Hell, Destroyer and Twilight of the Idols. 

 

Destroyer and Twilight are pretty weak to my ears, especially the disjointed compilation type feeling of Destroyer. It's basically just a bunch of leftovers.

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  • 4 months later...

I need to say more in this thread. I've been doing some serious Gorgoroth revisiting lately and the power of Satan compels me.

The best Gorgoroth albums are just outstanding and some of the best music I've ever heard. And after careful consideration I'm going to assert that their 2009 Infernus comeback album 'Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt' is their best. That's right. Better than 'Antichrist'. Better than 'Pentagram'. 

Allow me to explain. The riffs on this album, having finally got rid of Gaahl and King ov Hell who held a strange Wormtongue-like hold over Infernus, represent a decade of pent up inspiration and quality from Infernus that was just bursting to come out. After the borderline norsecore albums written by the Gaahl and King that are all blast and no last (althought they're cool enough albums in their own way), 'QPAST' is not just a breath of fresh air, it's a revelation. It fits my taste in that it's melodic, emotional and still retains the dark essence that makes black metal the best metal genre ever created. It creates the dark art through riffs and atmosphere rather than speed and effects. 

Following up this album for me as next best is 'Under the Sign of Hell', the original version. Similar reasons to 'QPAST' but 'Under..' just lacks that extra tug of the heartstrings that 'QPAST' has. It's bloody close though. 

Both albums are two of the greatest black metal albums ever created. And I'd even go so far as to say that 'QPAST' is the best black metal album of the 21st century so far. I'm quite prepared to stand by this well-considered and compelling opinion. 

Unfortunately 'Instinctus Bestialis' is a pale follow-up and a real head-scratcher when it comes to why. 

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I need to say more in this thread. I've been doing some serious Gorgoroth revisiting lately and the power of Satan compels me.
The best Gorgoroth albums are just outstanding and some of the best music I've ever heard. And after careful consideration I'm going to assert that their 2009 Infernus comeback album 'Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt' is their best. That's right. Better than 'Antichrist'. Better than 'Pentagram'. 
Allow me to explain. The riffs on this album, having finally got rid of Gaahl and King ov Hell who held a strange Wormtongue-like hold over Infernus, represent a decade of pent up inspiration and quality from Infernus that was just bursting to come out. After the borderline norsecore albums written by the Gaahl and King that are all blast and no last (althought they're cool enough albums in their own way), 'QPAST' is not just a breath of fresh air, it's a revelation. It fits my taste in that it's melodic, emotional and still retains the dark essence that makes black metal the best metal genre ever created. It creates the dark art through riffs and atmosphere rather than speed and effects. 
Following up this album for me as next best is 'Under the Sign of Hell', the original version. Similar reasons to 'QPAST' but 'Under..' just lacks that extra tug of the heartstrings that 'QPAST' has. It's bloody close though. 
Both albums are two of the greatest black metal albums ever created. And I'd even go so far as to say that 'QPAST' is the best black metal album of the 21st century so far. I'm quite prepared to stand by this well-considered and compelling opinion. 
Unfortunately 'Instinctus Bestialis' is a pale follow-up and a real head-scratcher when it comes to why. 
I keep seeing this opinion about Quantos being amazing from several sources, so I keep thinking that I have missed something and put it on to refresh it's presence in my mind. Every time is the same, I get excited by a couple of riffs, and then it falls flat and I can't remember what I've heard as soon as the song ends. It's pretty obvious to most that it trounces the false Gorgoroth albums, but beyond that, I don't hear anything to gush over. What am I missing? What makes this stand out for so many?

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14 hours ago, BlutAusNerd said:

I keep seeing this opinion about Quantos being amazing from several sources, so I keep thinking that I have missed something and put it on to refresh it's presence in my mind. Every time is the same, I get excited by a couple of riffs, and then it falls flat and I can't remember what I've heard as soon as the song ends. It's pretty obvious to most that it trounces the false Gorgoroth albums, but beyond that, I don't hear anything to gush over. What am I missing? What makes this stand out for so many?

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I don't know what it is that doesn't click for you.

For me, it's the riffs, which are the foundation of the atmosphere, which in turn is the foundation of the effect on me, the listener.

It's just great, emotional riffs one after the other. It's a fairly slow/mid-paced album and those riffs just shine with a black light. I feel them in my stomach. Also, the song structures just work perfectly. The progression from moment to moment just really works for me. Pest's vocals are cool, but that clean vocal part in 'Satan/Prometheus' makes me want to worship forevermore. Tomas Asklund's drumming also holds it together so perfectly. It has the competent modern drumming approach yet with a sensitivity to the music. Asklund is a true black metal spirit and it just shines through in his drumming  

So essentially it's the tone, the slower riffs, and the arrangements. Infernus's riffs are unbelievable. 

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Oh man, I'm just reading through the 'Antichrist' inlay and there are some absolutely cracking hilarious moments going on here. Here are some of my favourites:

"Infernus will hereby declare his neverending gratefulness to the great and skillful musicians for whom without this album wouldn't have turned out as satisfying as it did." I usually have more class than to mock people's second language, but this is hilarious in its attempted pomp. 

"Frost - Total destruction of wooden coffins (and cymbals)". haha, the drums are described as wooden coffins, and Frost totally destroys them. With cymbals in brackets. 

And this one tops the charts:

"He will also use this great opportunity to congratulate, and say thanx to himself for doing his mesmerizing electric guitarsolos, hunting the Christians, writing his poetry of Darkness and Satan, for raping the nuns and kicking the lambs of christ in the head, and for the melodyarrangements." He thanks himself for hunting the christians hahahaha. 

I never noticed all this before, but it's gold. Black metal. It's the genre that keeps on giving. 

 

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Oh man, I'm just reading through the 'Antichrist' inlay and there are some absolutely cracking hilarious moments going on here. Here are some of my favourites:
"Infernus will hereby declare his neverending gratefulness to the great and skillful musicians for whom without this album wouldn't have turned out as satisfying as it did." I usually have more class than to mock people's second language, but this is hilarious in its attempted pomp. 
"Frost - Total destruction of wooden coffins (and cymbals)". haha, the drums are described as wooden coffins, and Frost totally destroys them. With cymbals in brackets. 
And this one tops the charts:
"He will also use this great opportunity to congratulate, and say thanx to himself for doing his mesmerizing electric guitarsolos, hunting the Christians, writing his poetry of Darkness and Satan, for raping the nuns and kicking the lambs of christ in the head, and for the melodyarrangements." He thanks himself for hunting the christians hahahaha. 
I never noticed all this before, but it's gold. Black metal. It's the genre that keeps on giving. 
 
That's fucking fantastic, I've never seen or read those notes before! Very black metal indeed. My favorite ESL notes/lyrics will likely always be Sarcófago's, but this brought a smile to my face this morning.

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On 12/30/2017 at 2:58 AM, BlutAusNerd said:

That's fucking fantastic, I've never seen or read those notes before! Very black metal indeed. My favorite ESL notes/lyrics will likely always be Sarcófago's, but this brought a smile to my face this morning.

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What do the Sarcofago notes say? 

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5 hours ago, BlutAusNerd said:

The lyrics are hilarious! My favorite is the classic "if you are a false don't entry, the nuclear drums will crush your brain, because you'll be burned and died, slaughtering all with intensive pain!"

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"The blood of your heads
Spread in our faces
Violence and death
Are with we desire"

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On 03/01/2018 at 5:32 AM, BlutAusNerd said:

The lyrics are hilarious! My favorite is the classic "if you are a false don't entry, the nuclear drums will crush your brain, because you'll be burned and died, slaughtering all with intensive pain!"

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I definitely shouldn’t have entried.

Those are hilarious and great lyrics! 

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2 hours ago, Alblooshi90 said:

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STAY METALHAED \M/

You into Gororoth? 

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  • 5 months later...

Another of the giants of black metal, this band deserves a bit more attention. Always a darkened pleasure, how do the albums stack up when perceived as a whole? I've walked the darkened path and come back to tell the tale: 

Requiem's Ranking of Gorgoroth Albums from Insipid to Satan

9. Destroyer (1998)

There are no truly bad Gorgoroth albums. But if there was, then this would be it. It's a real bits-and-pieces collection of tracks with no fewer than four different vocalists. It's a strange beast, and it is quite a challenging listen. I never put this on, which is a pretty good sign that it ain't all that happening. It's very much lacking in cohesive songs. Quite a nice album cover of Infernus's watermarked face over a burning battleship. 

8. Incipit Satan (2000)

This is actually a lot better than I remember it. It's the first full Gaahl album (he had one track on 'Destroyer'), and it's actually pretty good. In fact, it's the final album that Infernus would write before abdicating to King ov Hell for the next couple of albums, but it sounds like he's run out of passion a bit which may be why the others took over. This is not a bad collection of that awkward, turn of the millenium black metal thing that no one really loves. It's not 'true' but it's not entirely 'false' either. Album cover suffers from the era of fancying things up. 

7. Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam (2006)

Gaahl and King's final album - thank the dark lord they were given their marching orders, then lost the court battle. Hail Infernus, the true king of Gorgorth. Ahem, anyway, besides the politics, this is quite a decent black metal album, with all tracks penned by the aforementioned twins of toss. 'Wound Upon Wound' is a wonderful, savage, track, and there's plenty to like here. Album cover is nicely classical. Interesting CD booklet observation: both this and 'Twilight of the Idols' have Gaahl and King's photos in the booklet first, with Infernus relegated to the back page. Now they're relegated to the back page of history. 

6. Twilight of the Idols (2003)

Easily the best of the Gaahl/King albums, due mostly to the first track, the fantastic 'Procreating Satan' which, ironically, wasn't even written by them, but by Kvitrafn, the drummer at the time who is also the mainman of Wardruna. So it's not even a King song. And man, what a song it is. The ending of 'Procreating Satan' is one of metal's great moments if you ask me. The final track, the weird keyboard thing by good old Infernus is the next best thing on the album. Overall, this is a really good album and the only one of Gaahl and King's that I'll concede comes close to being a classic. 

5. Instinctus Bestialis (2015)

The latest Gorgoroth release and the second with Infernus back in charge, this is good, but it just didn't stick with me in the same way that their comeback 'Quantos' did. It feels as if a few of the riffs are recycled, but overall it has an authentic vibe and there are some great riffs and melodies here. I was hoping for more, however. Not a huge fan of the orange cover, but it's alright I guess. 

4. Pentagram (1994)

Now we're in classic territory. The debut is a brillant album, with one of the great black metal vocalists, Hat, on vocals and quite a full guitar sound. Good old Samoth turns up on the bass as well. Like most of the debut albums from the early 90s Norwegian movement, this has spirit, purpose and a great sense of confidence. Some people call this their best, I just call it a beast. Strange it only goes for 29 minutes. That's pretty short for a full length, I'm sure you'll agree. Simple cover is much more effective than all the illustrative bollocks they sometimes come up with. 

3. Antichrist (1996)

Another album under the 30 minute mark, barely making 25 minutes(!) including a 20 second sound effect intro, this is a brilliant little piece of blasphemy and a lot colder in production to the relatively full sound of 'Pentagram'. Good old Hat on vocals. But the best thing here are the riffs, as Infernus really starts to nail down those great second wave treble melodies. When the tracks slow down and he locks into those melodies, damn it's blackened magic. Excellent album cover with the inverted cross. 

2. Under the Sign of Hell (1997)

Speaking of guitar melodies. This album is fantastic and contains next level riffs that really seem to tug at the heart strings and make one howl at the moon. There's an epic feel here that makes this one of the great Norwegian black metal albums in my opinion. Pest on vocals does an admirable job, but of course it's Infernus's riffs that propel this into the black metal stratosphere. It's a pity they re-recorded this, and the 2011 version should generally be avoided, but everyone knows this about re-recorded albums in general. The album cover is a fantastic depiction of infernal and haunting nature. 

1. Quantos Possunt ad Satanitatem Trahunt (2009)

After expelling the pretenders Gaahl and King, Infernus came back with an album that eclipses everything else he has ever done, with or without them. The line-up is amazing here: Pest on vocals, Infernus on guitars, Boddel (from Obituary) on bass and Tomas Asklund (Dissection) on drums, they have together created one of the best sounding true black metal albums I've ever heard. Songs like 'Satan-Prometheus' and 'Prayer' are so good it almost hurts to hear them. You can't help but throw up the claws at the moon and clouds. The songs are slower, darker and just full of brilliant riffs. Icy, meaningful. The true sound of Gorgoroth. Hail Infernus. 

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  • 1 year later...

I’ve been listening to ‘Instinctus Bestialis’ a lot lately, possibly because there has been no new material from the band in 4 years, and I’ve been really liking it. 

The production is just magic, those drums are next level. The riffs and atmosphere are great and I don’t  hate the vocals like the internet seems to. 

It’s a really good album. I’ve been underrating it.

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  • 3 months later...

Instinctus Bestialis has been underrated from the start indeed. I mean Infernus really brought back those melodic riffs that we know from the older Gorgoroth releases. To me it really felt like the second coming of Gorgoroth after all these years of turmoil. It was really an excellent follow up to "Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt" but somehow it just came and went without too much noise. Although i have to agree with most people that the new vocalist sucks. He just has the most generic death metal sounding vocals ever, he´s certainly the worst guy they had so far. They should have just gotten Hoest to do the vocals on the album since he does all their live performances nowadays. 

That being said i think Gorgoroth really needs to tighten their releases schedule. 6 or 7 years in between album is just way too long and you lose a lot of momentum and people tend to forget about you. But i suspect Infernus has difficulties keeping a stable line up and with the passing of Frank Watkins aka Bøddel he really lost an important friend and business associate. I remember Infernus mentioning that he really helped him out during the whole Gorgoroth copyright trial and with tons of other business stuff since Watkins had his own management company. I think Infernus loves music but just despises the business sides of things, hence the slow output.

 

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On 11/17/2019 at 11:20 PM, Benjaminc81 said:

Instinctus Bestialis has been underrated from the start indeed. I mean Infernus really brought back those melodic riffs that we know from the older Gorgoroth releases. To me it really felt like the second coming of Gorgoroth after all these years of turmoil. It was really an excellent follow up to "Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt" but somehow it just came and went without too much noise. Although i have to agree with most people that the new vocalist sucks. He just has the most generic death metal sound vocals ever, he´s certainly the worst guy they had so far. They should have just gotten Hoest to do the vocals on the album since he does all their live performances nowadays. 

That being said i think Gorgoroth really needs to tighten their releases schedule. 6 or 7 years in between album is just way too long and you lose a lot of momentum and people tend to forget about you. But i suspect Infernus has difficulties keeping a stable line up and with the passing of Frank Watkins aka Bøddel he really lost an important friend and business associate. I remember Infernus mentioning that he really helped him out during the whole Gorgoroth copyright trial and with tons of other business stuff since Watkins had his own management company. I think Infernus loves music but just despises the business sides of things, hence the slow output.

 

Great call on the idea of having Hoest involved. That would have been amazing. Maybe he actually declined the offer though - as it's a pretty big step to actually appear on a band's album compared with filling in for a tour. 

I don't actually mind the singer on 'Instinctus Bestialis'. Yes, it's a bit generic death, but it sort of fits in its own way. Apparently the guy can do a range of voices but Infernus just stuck with straight ahead growls, which is a bit weird. The album would have been incredible if Hoest was given free reign. 

Also, I agree fully regarding the release schedule, but albums cost so much to make and no one buys the damn things (except for me apparently) that it's almost foolhardy to actually go ahead and make one. Even the most popular bands in metal won't go less than 3 years before a new albums (mostly). 

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  • 6 months later...
On 10/31/2014 at 11:31 AM, Scullicon said:

I saw them live this summer, With Hoest from Taake as vocalist. Kind of different from my last experience which were at Wacken some years ago, when they had Gaahl and King, but no Infernus.

The God Seed Wakken show?!?! That is my fave live show of all time! It looks like Armageddon at the end of prosperity and beauty, with the lights and fire!!! Actually brought a tear to the eye! I actually really like Twilight of the idols, Forces of Satan storms is an absolute banger! Ad Majorum has "Wound Upon Wound" and the dark carnivalesque "Carving a Giant", both quality songs too. Under the Sign of Hell has "Revelation of Doom", but I was disappointed they didn't commit to that ugly ugly production, with distorted EVERYTHING, I mean those drums sound immense!, for the whole album.  The debut "Begravelsesnatt" and "Maneskyggens Slave", all in all I'd say I like more songs by Gorgoroth than I do by Immortal, and definitely more songs liked than Mayhem, but then Mayhem put out like 4 albums in their first 25 years!!!

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  • 10 months later...
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  • 1 month later...

I never got that into Gorgoroth and I think that it's because the first album I heard by them was "Incipit Satan" and it really didn't do much for me, so I never went back and listened to any of their other material. They've been around for a while, so they're obviously not a bad band-- they've had some success in the black metal scene and their live shows are notorious, it's just that "Incipit Satan" did not move me.

I should probably go back and listen to their earlier work though.

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  • 1 month later...
On 10/14/2021 at 2:07 PM, NokturnalBoredom said:

I never got that into Gorgoroth and I think that it's because the first album I heard by them was "Incipit Satan" and it really didn't do much for me, so I never went back and listened to any of their other material. They've been around for a while, so they're obviously not a bad band-- they've had some success in the black metal scene and their live shows are notorious, it's just that "Incipit Satan" did not move me.

I should probably go back and listen to their earlier work though.

Anti-Christ and Under The Sign Of Hell are essential. Then  Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt and  Instinctus Bestalis are excellent. Pentagram is very good but the vocals are a bit grating. 

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