Angry Metal Guy

Nidingr // Wolf Father
Rating: 3.5/5.0 — “Are you ready for some pure Norvegian black metal!?”
Label: Jester Records / Vendlus
Website: nidingr.no
Release Dates: EU: Out | US: Jan 18th, 2011

When I got this disc last year via Jester Records I missed it. I don’t know why it got shuffled off to the side, or what happened exactly, but for some reason it just didn’t get done in time. In any case, I just recently got wind that they’re readying for the US release so I figured I’d break out the Internet-pen and have at a review of this super group’s (Line-up: bass and guitars: Teloch [1349, Gorgoroth, Ov Hell, Orcustus, Umoral, Konsortium]; bass and guitars (again): Blargh [Gravferd, Dødheimsgard]; vocals: Cpt. Estrella Grasa [Kort Prosess]; and drums: Hellhammer [Immortal, Shining, Thorns, Umoral, Mayhem, Winds, Arcturus]) stab at reclaiming Norwegian black metal glory. Continue reading

Ov Hell // The Underworld Regime
Rating: 2.0/5.0 — An all around disappointment
Label: Indie Recordings
Website: myspace.com/ovhell
Release Dates: EU: 08.02.2010 | US: ?

The Gorgoroth debacle over the last couple of years has definitely left me very confused. See, I thought it was King (ov Hell) who was doing the majority of the writing on the later Gorgoroth stuff, which was some of the best, most extreme and interesting black metal that was going on over the last few years (that wasn’t deep, deep underground). Since Twilight of the Idols, Gorgoroth had a total monopoly on black metal extremity and just plain fucking evil. When QPAST was released, it was clear that it was not that modern Gorgoroth anymore and so I assumed that God Seed, and then after that fell apart, Ov Hell would be the thing that continued on the path that Gorgoroth had taken. The left hand path, if you will allow me such blatant silliness.

Instead, King teamed up with a black metal super group and produced an album that is only partially as good as it could be, and definitely not as extreme as I was expecting. Actually, the album is general a gigantic disappointment. Instead of continuing on the path of what later Gorgoroth had done, King sans Gaahl produced an album that is basically old school black metal riffs of the boring and generic kind. The first four tracks are really just soulless (but not like evil soulless, soulless like pop music) tracks that aren’t even remotely interesting. They slog through the boringness that makes my eyes want to bleed and just generally piss me off. Tracks like “Invoker” and “Perpetual Night” stun only with their mediocrity and lack of creativity.

On the second half things improve definitely. Starting with the track “Ghosting”, we finally get some of that atmosphere that one expects of good black metal. The track is definitely a high point on the album and really reaches its peak about a minute before the end. After that, things get a little bit more like what I was expecting: the tracks are a lot more blinding and extreme (both “Acts of Sin” and “Krigsatte Faner” are much more in the line of Twilight of the Idols or Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam) and just generally well-composed and compelling. Even the nationalistic trite “Hill Norge” (“Hail Norway”) is a pretty good track, though it’s definitely a step back from the three preceding tracks.

The production leaves a little bit to be desired, actually. There’s nothing remotely raw about this album other than some amusing clips (“fuck me with a crucifix!”) and that’s most obvious in the drums, I think. The drums are incredibly well produced, and while they may or may not be triggered, they are very high in the mix and produced cleanly.. But I think another thing is the vocals. It never occurred to me what a good vocalist Gaahl was until he was not involved in this. I sat and imagined Gaahl’s vocals over this record and it was infinitely better (though, frankly, his vocals couldn’t have fixed the first four tracks). Shagrath is OK, but he’s Dimmu Borgir to my ears and that takes a little bit away from credibility of this as the straight up evil, extreme Norwegian black metal that this should be.

All told, this record is just a big, fat disappointment. Honestly, King ov Hell should have waited until he wrote better tracks to produce this album, or even chosen to release the last four tracks as an EP. What this shows me, is that despite this album being a total disappointment, there is definitely some potential here. With the proper production, a real, dedicated band and a bit of the drive that was behind Gorgoroth despite the internal bickering, Ov Hell could be a way better project! There are some good moments here, but for the most part The Underworld Regime should go back from whence it came.

Angry Metal Girlfriend found this blog with a really very amusing flowchart of Heavy Metal band names. It was obvious to me from the getgo that this person was not, in fact, a real fan of metal because they missed the ever important Names Taken from Lord of the Rings section (see: Gorgoroth, Burzum, Amon Amarth, Amon Din, Crebain, Isengard and so on and so forth), but it is, in and of itself, a very excellent flowchart which demonstrates just how awesome metal naming conventions really are. Also, complete with inverted pentagram. (Cick the picture below to get it to open in a new tab/window.)

Gorgoroth – Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt
Rating: 3.5/5.0 – Not the barely controlled chaos of the King/Gaahl years, but old school and well done
Label: Regain Records
Websites: gorgoroth.info | myspace.com/gorgoroth
Release Dates: EU: 21.10.2009 | USA: 11.11.2009

Gorgoroth is almost more infamous than famous these days.  Known for the extremity of its members, its outrageous and genuinely evil and offensive stage shows and, most recently, its law suit, the band has gained the respect of the black metal scene in recent years for moving ahead of the pack with a calculated but extremely raw sound.  2003′s Twilight of the Idols and the band’s 2006 release Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam had seen the band slipping from the hands of the former primary writer into the hands of King ov Hell.  With that, the sound of Gorgoroth became far more aggressive, blasty and chaotic.  Of course, with the split, Gorgoroth reverted to Infernus who wasted no time in producing a new ode to Satan: Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt.

Honestly, as a fan of the later Gorgoroth material, I was a little bit worried that this album was not going to be very good.  I certainly had come to see Gaahl and King ov Hell as the primary members of the band and as the blackened heart at the core of Gorgoroth.  However, that part of me had forgotten what a stellar album Destroyer was, in my ignorance.  Fortunately for me, Infernus came to remind me that Gorgoroth is far from done.  Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt should be seen as a statement of intent from Infernus, I think.  A reminder that Gorgoroth became a black metal powerhouse not through the later albums, but through the early albums which were instrumental in helping form what we see as the “traditional” black metal sound, but were still high quality black metal. All of the songs were written between 2006 and 2009, when Infernus was, in essence, being frozen out of the band and Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt puts this material forward and says “I never went away.”

Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt is definitely much more controlled and  conventional than the previous incarnation of Gorgoroth.  In fact, I was quite taken aback by it at first.  I had been expecting something else, and what stood out for me was how clean this record is and how it really is an orthodox but at the same time remarkably beautiful album. Black metal has always had a certain dark mystique for the majority of us who like it.  Raw, dark and extreme is what many look for, but I’ve always had a soft spot for bands like Taake who could weave good melodic influences into their work at the same time as being dark and extreme.  This is done beautifully on this album, which is littered with fetching harmonized tremello-picked guitar parts and even have chanting on the stand-out track “Satan Prometheus”.

In a way Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt is a return to form for the mighty Gorgoroth more than anything else. If you want to see the band as a band that was hijacked and has now been reclaimed, that is how this album plays. And I think it is a beautifully produced, well written album that balances old school, slow, riffy black metal with other more traditional black metal conventions.

A final note for the traditionalists: this was not recorded in a forest and therefore the production is probably too good for you. In fact, as I stated earlier, the production on this album is actually crystal clean and very well-balanced. The rawness and atmosphere of the older material isn’t there, even if the writing style is a lot more in that vein.  For me, this isn’t an issue. I like good production so long as it’s not over produced and this album isn’t overdone. And fans of the genre, honestly, should check it out.

Unfortunately, this review didn’t quite make it to 666 words either.

The big news from Indie Records that I received in my inbox today was that Shagrath (Dimmu Borgir) and King (ex-Gorgoroth, ex-God Seed) are forming a new black metal band called Ov Hell.  Some of you will have read how I feel about the word “ov” before and now I feel like I have a mission: to start a band where I spell everything with an “UV”… or wait, maybe “UF”… or, I guess I could go really out on a limb and use “OF”!

There is literally nothing more cliché in metal right now than that (with the exception of breakdowns).  And seriously, is black metal so easy to write that you can disappear for two months and have an entirely new band and be signed to Indie Recordings?  It’s incredible.  But that’s a different rant.

Anyway, the music sounds pretty good considering everything, so I wish them luck.  But man.. is black metal so bankrupt that the best name you guys could come up with was “OV HELL”?  *sigh*