“Rebirth of Gorgorooooooooth!!!!”

It’s fitting that after all the legal and personal issues that have plagued this Norwegian stalwart black metal band over the last few years, that the third track has returning vocalist Pest spit out this line during the aptly named third track, “Rebirth”

Truth be told, I’ve never been a huge fan of the bands work, as they seemed to be just a step behind some of their bigger named peers (Marduk, Dark Funeral, Immortal etc) but on this, the band’s eighth album, an album following a long year of legal wrangling with former members Gaahl and King ov Hell, I am finally starting to hear a band that I enjoy. Of course, one could argue that this really isn’t ‘true’ Gorgoroth persay, with Infernus being the only lone original member and without Gaahl and Kig Ov Hell, but either way, Quantos Possunt ad Satanitatem Trahunt is a damn solid album.

What surprised me about Quantos Possunt ad Satanitatem Trahunt is that its not a sheer, frosty or wall of sound blast-fest but a rather robust, mid paced album that relies on steady pacing and control. Sure, a few blasts pop up here and there in there tremolo fueled fury (“Aneuthanasia”, “Building a Man”, standout epic closer “Satan Prometheus”), but for the most part the album marches with a grim militaristic gait. The bass of Boddel (Obituary’s Frank Watkins) and steady double bass of former Dark Funeral drummer Tomas Asklund give the album a hefty backbone rather than the rather reedy thin sound that some black metal has ( I’m looking at you Immortal’s All Shall Fall).

The pulsing, deliberate pace of tracks like “Prayer”, almost doom laden “Rebirth”, thunderous “New Breed” and “Human Sacrifice” drip with a controlled malevolence that does not rely on overt theatrics, samples or interludes (“Satan Prometheus” does have some subtle choirs), just a rhythmically bombastic assault that rumbles with a mature and seething anger that’s cathartic but restrained at the same time. It would have been easy for Infernus to go all Arioch (Funeral Mist) and lose his musical shit and make the album completely over the top and a giant ‘fuck you’ to King and Gaahl, but instead the material he wrote (and even Pest’s vocals) seems to be more stripped down, brooding and back to Gorgoroth’s earlier roots and based in simple, effective riffs.

In all, an album that seems to make Infernus a resilient individual, able to make an album this strong and focus despite all the bull shit (regardless of whose side you take). This is the the album Immortal’s All Shall Fail wanted to be.

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