A nasty piece of work
In all their ghastly garb and white make-up, Gorgoroth look like worried zombies, and rightly so. In 2004 the band, during a live broadcast in Krakow, Poland, displayed sheep heads on steaks, an 80 litre bloodbath of sheep's blood, an array of satanic symbols and four naked crucified models. Although the band weren't charged for religious offence and cruelty to animals, the band were dropped from the Nuclear Blast tour they were on, and the concert footage was confiscated by police. Shortly after the Polish incident, singer Gaahl was sentenced to 18 months in prison for the assault of 41 year old man, of whom he threatened to drink his blood. His sentence was reduced to 14 months after an appeal, but he still had to pay his victim 180000 NOK (£15,500). In 2005 guitarist Infernus was found guilty of indifferent attitude to rape. His friend committed the rape but Infernus could spend a year in a Norwegian prison because he did nothing to stop it.
The future of Gorgoroth looks bleak unless the band can be let out on day release to rehearse. But the first question that springs to my mind is, should we be reviewing the music, and thus giving wide media attention, to such warped individuals? This is WAY beyond The Sex Pistols swearing on the telly. It's on a higher level than Liam Gallagher punching photographers. That's small fry compared to Gorgoroth. On the press release, the band claim they are attempting to manifest a spiritual being of the forces of darkness through their guitars and on-stage performances. We are of course surmising that Beelzebub likes extreme metal. Who knows, he make like a little Kenny G or Earth Wind and Fire. Which would see a lot of black metal bands with blood-ridden egg on their faces. But with Satanism being linked very heavily with violence in any form, one can rarely NOT link extreme music with such extreme beliefs. I'm not here to belittle anyone's faith, everyone has the right to believe what they want to believe, it's the glorification of enactments of violence that lets this genre of music down.
But of course all this palaver takes away the attention from the music itself, which let's face it, is why people were taking notice in the first place. The fact that 388 words of this review so far hasn't been about their new album, but about their out of band antics, suggest they are simply making a cover for some mediocre music (The old style over substance argument again). But is this true? Most bands are content with either a little controversy or some over the top image. Rarely do bands go to such lengths unless they have such blindingly beliefs in what they're doing and what they stand for. I don't believe for one moment that Gorgoroth aren't genuine, there's no room for bullshit in this band, an attitude that signifies the true nature of metal. But all of this belief, commitment and symbolism can't help you write a good tune, and it is this element about Gorgoroth that is seriously lacking.
'Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam' is a fucking row from start to finish. The tinny, mushy production is largely to blame for this of course, but the 'speed of light' blast beats and thrashy guitars don't help matters either. 'God Seed (Twilight of the Idols)' in particular is just a noise from start to finish. I'm sure the drumming and the guitar-work is impressive but the fact you can't make head nor tail of what they're actually doing, makes the music practically redundant. Of course this is partly the whole point of black metal, but Gorgoroth do it in a way that sounds sickening. Gaarth's vocals are distorted flashes of demonic vocalisations. There's no melody, no real structure, just wails of hissing hate that churns the very bile in your stomach. Occasionally some likeable ideas manage to float above the lagoon of white noise. 'Sign of an open eye' has an excellent haunting slow feel about it, and the restrained feel of 'Carving a Giant' is particually effective. But having to sit through an album that is so sonically vicious was 'almost' too much even for this reviewer to withstand (I said 'almost')
Purely on the music side of things, you're better opting for Necrophobic or Cradle of Filth. If you like the whole attitude of Gorgoroth, their symbolism and beliefs then this album should be in your collection. It's sick, twisted music that has, over the days that I've been listening to it, altered my personality, in which I'm feeling incredibly ticked off most of the time. In this case, the old cliché of 'the devil has the best tunes' isn't always correct. Although 'Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam' maybe poor in terms of decent ideas, but I think it's done it's job in terms of it's effect. Kenny G anyone?