GORGOROTH — Under the Sign of Hell (review)

GORGOROTH — Under the Sign of Hell album cover

Album · 1997 · Black Metal

5/5 · 2017-12-22
siLLy puPPy

One of black metal’s purest forms of primeval rage appeared on GORGOROTH’s third album UNDER THE SIGN OF HELL right smack dab in the middle of the 90s demented era of the second wave black metal frenzy. While clearly inspired by the likes of Darkthrone and other Norwegian church burning miscreants (hmmm… i wonder who THAT could be :?), this short but slightly over thirty minute long outburst of pure eeeee-vile kvlt freneticism drops its sonic intensity upon the listener like a bomb on Hiroshima razing all to the ground and leaving anyone still breathing only to fester in torturous anguish following its radioactive wake.

While not stylistically different from the first two GORGOROTH albums, something shifted here. Inferno, Pest and Grim somehow created the perfect triumvirat of black metal angst with pummeling distorted guitar and bass riffs in tandem with some of Pest’s angriest and most ferocious vocals to appear on any GROGOROTH album accompanied by the frenetic blast beat fury of Grim at breakneck speed. Likewise the compositions are more diverse than ever with not only the expected frenetic energy infused headache music but include elements of black’n’roll, Scandinavian folk (even clean lyrics like Enslaved would utilize to full effect) and even dreadfully dark ambient segments.

The short nine track album is punctuated in the middle with great success by a bizarre and utterly deranged delivery of pure eeee-vile with the backmasking rich collage of sounds on “Postludium” which exhibits the anguished and tortured sounds of hell with moans, groans, indecipherable pleas with sonic swirls of sound in the firestorm pits before once again revisiting the frenetic distorted apocalyptic visions of the world of black metal drenched in the muck and murk of lo-fi bleakness.

“Ødeleggelse og Undergang” displays the band’s stylistic explorations as it treads doom laden sonicscapes interspersed with thrash riff attacks that employ ample melodic chord change shifts rather than relying simply on aggression alone which BTW remains on full display during this is fury is frenetically unleashed. Despite lasting a mere 32 minutes and 53 seconds, UNDER THE SIGN OF HELL is a frighteningly complete listening experience bringing the listener to the brink of what they can tolerate as the album exploits every fear factor of grimness and is one of the few black metal albums that effortlessly succeeds in descending me to the underworld and leave me feel suffocated while i’m experiencing it.

I’m a huge fan of GORGORTH on all their journeys of changing it up over the years, but they hit a high note (or should i say satisfying low one) on UNDER THE SIGN OF HELL where they delivered on all the beastly best of what makes a hardcore black metal album so utterly satisfying without an iota of compromise and no fucks given about the consequences. Lo-fi beastly fun for the whole family. Well, the Adam’s Family that is! Oh, and forget about that nonsensical 2011 re-recording of demonic excrement. There never has been a need to re-record this because it’s perfect as it is. True kvlt black metal is SUPPOSED to have warts rolled around in goat feces. WTF were they thinking?