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Gorgoroth - Pentagram review



Reviewer:
7.5

235 users:
7.99
Band: Gorgoroth
Album: Pentagram
Release date: October 1994


01. Begravelsesnatt
02. Crushing The Scepter (Regaining A Lost Dominion)
03. Ritual
04. Drømmer Om Død
05. Katharinas Bortgang
06. Huldrelokk
07. (Under) The Pagan Megalith
08. Måneskyggens Slave

With the original line up underway, this is the debut release from Gorgoroth, one of the highest respected and foremost one of the most intense Black Metal outfits to come out of Norway. This album however follows the same path that nearly all are doomed to have followed, the poor quality of recording. Though, it doesn't hamper it much, this album isn't their strongest either. It suffers from low quality, as I said, and a short play list in minutes, in fact it runs about twenty nine minutes if I'm not mistaken. With that said, lets move onto the more interesting parts of this recording. Personally, it's not my favorite recording, its actually my least favorite album from Gorgoroth.

This album does use a lot of the underground qualities of the Norwegian Black Metal Scene, intense, fast, and over all obscure, it captures exactly what the band was trying to do at the time. Make pure Black Metal. The vocals are the best part of this recording, they are raspy, growled, and often sound like the wicked witch of the west assaulting those poor munchkins. At this time, it was Hat doing the vocals for Gorgoroth, Goatperverter was doing the drum work, Samoth was doing bass, and the only original member left to date, Infernus is doing the guitar licks. Which, I might add, the guitar work is pretty decent, even for a lower quality recording such as this one. Another strong point of this album is the fact that it rarely changes, it keeps its consistency with each song and doesn't loose it's self in a flurry of harmonic misshapenness. Thought sometimes that might be an annoying and characterless trait, for this band and their first major release, it was a strong and valid point in their style, which later would be a stable point for their musical careers.

Here comes the ass-kissing part, my personal favorites of this album. As I said earlier, I like the consistency and the repetition. It makes for a good listen when you want intense, speed driven, and raw black metal at its best. Another part that I find interesting is how Infernus uses the guitar, its fitting and its grinding, even then when he was younger, he knew how to play his instrument and how to horn his skills. In this day and age, that something very hard to do.

Written by Prugor | 16.04.2004




Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.


Comments

Comments: 7   Visited by: 118 users
02.09.2006 - 10:46
IhsahnFan
Account deleted
The best Gorgoroth album:)
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05.12.2007 - 02:20
Moeror

The best in my opinion too.
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On the plain lies an angel, dead
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05.12.2007 - 08:49
Rating: 8
Sunioj

Great album, the two following the album are also my favored Gorgoroth releases. And I just love the raw production...
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01.05.2008 - 10:31
Uirapuru
Liver Failure
very good black metal work, but its too short, not even 30 min (the same for Antichrist)... anyway, its about quality, and in that requirement its almost perfect
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member of the true crusade against old school heavy metal, early 80s thrash, NWOBHM, traditional doom, first and second wave black metal, old school death metal, US power metal, 70s prog rock and atmospheric doomsludgestoner. o/
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10.12.2009 - 22:53
Rating: 9
Slayer666

7.5? So very unfair.... I don't know about you guys, but I fell in love with this album when I first heard it about 3 years ago, and still think it's one of the best things that ever happened to Black Metal.
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10.04.2011 - 03:31
Chainer
Witch Hunter Gen
Very well written review.

edit. except in the last senentce its hone not horn
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Written by Dangerboner on 02.11.2009 at 08:11

Everything he doesn't like is metalcore. Britney Spears, Elton John, Michael Moore, and green beans are also metalcore, in case you guys didn't know.
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09.11.2014 - 17:46
bloodface

Knocking a Norwegian black metal release from 1994 for poor production is like knocking Nirvana's Nevermind for lack of guitar solos.

....and I wish albums were still too short.......R.I.P. "Reign in Blood". Fucking even AC/DC puts out 15 song albums now. I guess the kids like filler.
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