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On their first full-length album, Gorgoroth offer pale and nimble Black Metal that approaches like a winter storm; not necessarily the full tremendous blast, but more the light yet biting wind and falling flakes. The mood of the music on “Pentagram” ranges widely, yet throughout it all there is an unmistakable control and attention to detail in both the composition of the individual songs and of the entire album. The opener “Begravelsesnatt” begins with a mid tempo Black Metal bounce and half-lazy guitars that lasts for a few seconds before the arrival of blast beats and screeches. And what screeches they are, as I should take some time to point out that the vocal performance on this album by Hat is one of my favorites in all Black Metal, being of an unusual high-pitch, but less chaotic than the vocals of Grishnackh. The second track, “Crushing the Scepter (Regaining a Lost Dominion),” slows down a bit, switching from pure aggression to bewildering pathos, working through a waltz-like melody, climaxing in a familiar yet effective way. “Ritual” slows down even further, moving in an almost doom-like manner, interrupted by faster passages; but even these sound weighted and bound.
Of course the songs on this album are very diverse, so it is expected that the following track would again change. This is of course the case, but there is an important distinction to make. Many bands that attempt to vary the sound on their album will do so by simply randomly inserting slow songs in between faster ones, often resulting in an artificial break from the flow of the album, a sense that the slow tracks were in the way of the main action. Gorgoroth completely avoid this problem by making the variety of their songs (and the variety within their songs) completely organic and rational. Resuming the song-by-song account of the album, rather than following “Ritual” with another “Begravelsesnatt,” one finds the superb “Drømmer Om død,” a bit faster than “Ritual” but bringing a new feeling not found anywhere before, one of powerful yet steady hypnotic movement, with perhaps the most memorable riff on the album. But to avoid neglecting the more ethereal and esoteric qualities of “Pentagram,” let it be said that the painstaking mechanics and compositional skill discussed above produce a feeling of tantalizing black joy, of fearless and demonic mischief, sprightly and wicked. Although they were not one of the first or most influential of the Norwegian bands, and their later works are of substantially poorer quality, on this album they have made an amazing achievement that still stands as one of the best of the genre.
| Tracklist |
| 1. Begravelsesnatt |
| 2. Crushing The Scepter (Regaining A Lost Dominion) |
| 3. Ritual |
| 4. Drømmer Om Død |
| 5. Katharinas Bortgang |
| 6. Huldrelokk |
| 7. (Under) The Pagan Monolith |
| 8. Maaneskyggens Slave |
: 29.17
| Buy other Gorgoroth albums |
