Gorgoroth
Under The Sign Of Hell
[Malicious]
9 tracks, 32:55
Oh yes! THIS is just my cup of tea. Vile, ripping, raw Norwegian Black Metal. Tons of bands try to do the "underproduced raw black metal" thing these days, but a note to these bands: just recording your crappy rehearsals on a 4 track without any noticeable bass will not earn you favorable reviews - if you want to be raw go all the fucking bloody way! For the recordings of this album ('96 in the Grieghallen studios, of course by Eirik "Pytten" Hundvin) Gorgoroth sensibly realized that a rehash of "Pentagram" and "Antichrist" wouldn't impress anyone, and went for a full-frontal wall of ripping distortion, a violent mix of blast speeds and crushing mid tempo attacks on the neck and insanely overdriven vocals (courtesy of Pest). There's no finesse at all, this is as blunt and in-your-face as it gets. And it all works brilliantly here. Unlike their follow-up "Destroyer", which basically used the same approach but largely failed because of the lack of coherent songs, good riffs and charisma, "Under The Sign Of Hell" is a real fucking corker. Especially the first two tracks, "Revelation of Doom" and "Krig", destroy everything in their path.
There are two categories of albums in Metal: those where you have to sit down and listen, to be sucked into them (like Burzum, old Emperor, Summoning, Sort Vokter or Mütiilation) and those that inspire you to pick up a baseball bat and smash your interior to tiny bits (Cryptopsy, Blasphemy, Sarcofago, Mayhem, Mysticum, Impaled Nazarene). Gorgoroth's "In The Sign Of Hell" is definitely from the latter. I enjoy this CD as much today as I did two years ago. This is not an absolutely essential album, but I guarantee you *will* enjoy this a lot.
© 2000 sybren
Oh yes! THIS is just my cup of tea. Vile, ripping, raw Norwegian Black Metal. Tons of bands try to do the "underproduced raw black metal" thing these days, but a note to these bands: just recording your crappy rehearsals on a 4 track without any noticeable bass will not earn you favorable reviews - if you want to be raw go all the fucking bloody way! For the recordings of this album ('96 in the Grieghallen studios, of course by Eirik "Pytten" Hundvin) Gorgoroth sensibly realized that a rehash of "Pentagram" and "Antichrist" wouldn't impress anyone, and went for a full-frontal wall of ripping distortion, a violent mix of blast speeds and crushing mid tempo attacks on the neck and insanely overdriven vocals (courtesy of Pest). There's no finesse at all, this is as blunt and in-your-face as it gets. And it all works brilliantly here. Unlike their follow-up "Destroyer", which basically used the same approach but largely failed because of the lack of coherent songs, good riffs and charisma, "Under The Sign Of Hell" is a real fucking corker. Especially the first two tracks, "Revelation of Doom" and "Krig", destroy everything in their path.
There are two categories of albums in Metal: those where you have to sit down and listen, to be sucked into them (like Burzum, old Emperor, Summoning, Sort Vokter or Mütiilation) and those that inspire you to pick up a baseball bat and smash your interior to tiny bits (Cryptopsy, Blasphemy, Sarcofago, Mayhem, Mysticum, Impaled Nazarene). Gorgoroth's "In The Sign Of Hell" is definitely from the latter. I enjoy this CD as much today as I did two years ago. This is not an absolutely essential album, but I guarantee you *will* enjoy this a lot.
© 2000 sybren