Gorgoroth

Since Infernus founded the group in 1992, Gorgoroth’s form has re-materialised in several different incarnations according to the frenzied fine-tuning of line-up natural selection, improving significantly with each member change and subsequent album. Gone is the drab and drawn out black metal riffing that characterised early lo-fi recordings, forcefully ushered in are the more seasoned elements that have been instinctively evolving with experience and improved musicianship. While they continue to adhere to the blackened, voracious melodies that characterised Incipit Satan and Twilight of the Idols, the songs have grown with a precision and intelligence, ever moving towards a more impressive level of sophistication. The record progresses skilfully, never tiring too many similar moments in a row, incorporating junctures of melancholy gloom, creating a sombre yet hostile mood that cloaks the album with a genuine foreboding and depravity. Driven enough to keep the momentum but rarely too fast to leave the listener behind, the ever promiscuous Frost provides the reliably credible beats behind their developed balance of time manipulation, well-oriented riffing, and song structure. If Gorgoroth are going to continue to sharpen with age, they’ll render the rest of metal obsolete in another few records.