Posted on: March 3, 2010 Posted by: anfnewsacct Comments: 0

Gorgoroth – Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam / 2006 Candlelight / 8 Tracks / http://www.gorgoroth.org / http://www.candlelightrecordsusa.com / Reviewed 23 August 2006

It does not take Gorgoroth more than a second to get into heavy matters. The band is able to rend anything standing in their way. The disc’s first track is “Wound Upon Wound”, and the first thing that individuals will hear about Gorgoroth is the absolutely sick guitar and drum work that stands in the front of each composition of the disc. Sure, the vocals can be heard, but it is the double bass and the shredding guitars that make the biggest sound during the disc. The disc is short, barely topping thirty minutes, but the band throws so much in to an average track that individuals will have to keep rewinding the track to get a proper appreciation for the scope and sound of Gorgoroth.

While both guitar and drums were struggling for dominance during “Wound Upon Wound”, the drums are victorious during “Carving A Giant”. The track is slower than “Wound Upon Wound”, but the insistence of the drums during the track is what will keep individuals riveted to the seats. If the guitars took a more proactive role during the track, Gorgoroth’s fortunes would increase, but only slightly. The band knows what the hell they’re doing, and this comes through on each of the eight tracks on “Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam”.

The band is pure death metal through and through; Gorgoroth does not allow black metal or dungeon metal to seep into their sound at any point of this disc. The ability of the band to work so well in just one genre of music is another testament to their skill as a band, and shows furthermore that they will not be pinned into a rut regardless of however much the tracks on “Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam” adhere. It is during “God Seed” that the guitars come back in a major way and wrest dominance of the disc away from the drums, but this is not a clean victory. Both guitars and drums wage a bloody fight during “God Seed”, but the scaled guitars on the track eke a victory out that lasts for the entirety of the track’s four and a half minutes. Gorgoroth may only have eight tracks on this album, but the material present in each of these eight tracks is more than enough to make two normally-paced tracks. Gorgoroth is another act that has all the power of metal under their command, and show that time in and out on this disc.

Top Tracks: God Seed, Sign Of An Open Eye

Rating: 7.0/10

[JMcQ]

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