Warthur Pest returns to the vocal spot and Infernus once again becomes the band's primary composer as Gorgoroth emerges from the devastating feud between Infernus on the one hand and King ov Hell and Gaahl on the other. It's not an earthshakingly original album or a major departure from Gorgorth's usual style, but then again it didn't have to be; what was called for at the time was simply an album which proved that Gorgoroth could still raise a black metal cacophony and spit evil lyrics at the listener. This it does; as usual, the lyrics are extremely difficult and sometimes impossible to decipher, but the song titles at least seem to suggest a response to the Gaahl/King ov Hell-led era of Gorgoroth ("Building a Man" has to be some kind of take on "Carving a Giant", right?"); either way, all that really matters with Gorgoroth is that they sound furious and they certainly are that here.

Warthur The followup to Twilight of the Idols finds the dominance of Gaahl and King ov Hell over the band almost complete, with the duo writing all of the music and lyrics. And since on Twilight the only music written by Infernus was the 50 second outro track, this is pretty much the second Gorgoroth album in a row where Gaahl and King have been the primary creative forces in the band, in stark contrast to the band's career from their debut to Incipit Satan. Scholars of black metal history may be interested in it because it's the best indication we have of what the short-lived God Seed project might have sounded like - or, indeed, what Gorgoroth itself might have continued to sound like had Gaahl and King ov Hell succeeded in stealing the band from Infernus. Those who simply like primitive, angry black metal will find it an entertaining listen up to Gorgoroth's usual standards.

Warthur Somehow, I get the impression that Gorgoroth were profoundly disappointed that the burning church depicted on the cover of Twilight of the Idols didn't inspire a new wave of church burnings - I guess the Norwegian scene by and large had learned better than that after the Varg Vikernes debacle. (Plus, the original wave of church burnings tended to involve musicians actually getting off their asses and taking part in them, rather than just making provocative press interviews and hoping their nuttier fans would get the hint.)

I say this because in its music and in its presentation, Twilight of the Idols is absolutely obsessed with keeping alive the memory and aesthetic of the black metal scene as it was in 1993, just as the band seemed intent on doing so in their interactions with the media. Look at their outrageous gig in Krakow where they managed to get in trouble with the authorities, and you'll note that they were essentially borrowing Mayhem's stage getup; look at more or less any black metal documentary from this sort of period which features input from Gaahl, and more or less all of them create the impression that there have been no significant developments or evolution in black metal since the murder of Euronymous.

Those who have listened to more experimental black metal bands know that this is not true of course... but you don't come to Gorgoroth because you want a departure from the norm, you listen to them because they're an act based on keeping the old school flame alive. In retrospect, this is probably why Incipit Satan failed - Infernus was trying to get the band to be experimental but temperamentally the lineup just weren't suited to it.

On Twilight of the Idols they do a more than reasonable job. The lyrical and compositional contributions of Infernus, which had dominated pretty much every Gorgoroth release to date, are radically trimmed back, with Infernus only contributing lyrics to Forces of Satan Storms and only composing the music to the extremely short album coda. Aside from a couple of musical contributions from drummer of the day Kvitrafn, the album is dominated by the creative team of Gaahl and King ov Hell.

Although this duo would eventually spell trouble for the Gorgoroth brand with their shameful attempt to kick Infernus out of his own band some years later, here the teamup proves to be precisely what the band needed. With Infernus evidently suffering from writer's block, and the compositional approach which had sustained the band from the debut through to Destroyer apparently running out of steam, the time was right for the band's sound to be refreshed. Gaahl and King ov Hell succeed in doing precisely that whilst still remaining rooted in the early Norwegian black metal aesthetic.

If anything, their musical vision seems a bit more muscular and purist than that of Infernus, who would often incorporate a few rockier or punkier touches into the early Gorgoroth albums, and whilst this makes the band's sound a little bit less original and individual (aside from some interesting vocal touches here and there by Gaahl), on the whole it's a very capably performed piece of "True Norwegian black metal" which might not break much new ground, but stomps around the old ground very satisfyingly.

Warthur Gorgoroth's first to include Gaahl as the full-time vocalist (as opposed to appearing on a single song, as on Destroyer) also saw King ov Hell debuting as the group's bassist. However, the pair did not yet take the lead with it came to songwriting as they would for the next couple of albums; for this one, Infernus remained more or less in charge. What he comes up with is, to be honest, a muddle. There's a combination here of fairly straight-ahead and unsurprising black metal and the occasional failed attempt to get a bit experimental.

For instance, at points the band will attempt to insert a bit of electronic industrial music into the songs, but there's little to no effort made to actually integrate these interludes into the compositions. Likewise, Litani til Satan has Gaahl intone a Baudelaire poem in deep, clean vocals which seem to take more than a little influence from Rammstein as the band jam away in the background, but the musical backing is so repetitive and devoid of ideas that the track becomes mind-numbingly tedious.

On the whole, Incipit Satan is a shaky album which might be enjoyable to Gorgoroth fanatics, but I think most listeners will agree that by this point Infernus' songwriting formula had begun to run out of steam.

Warthur Following the monumental Under the Sign of Hell, Destroyer (or About How to Philosophise With the Hammer) feels more like a grab-bag of rejected tracks from the band's history than a fully realised new album in its own right. Just look at the number of different artists credited on the piece, with only Infernus appearing on all tracks; given the state of lineup flux the band was in at the time, it's no surprising that the resultant material is a bit messy and disjointed (and the production is pretty lousy too). Still, the compositions are still pretty strong, Gaahl gives a completely demented vocal performance on the opening track (his first appearance on a Gorgoroth album), and the doomy epic of The Virginborn is worth a half star all by itself.