Gorgoroth - Quantos Possunt ad Satanitatem Review

Posted by Daniel Wilcox on 10.27.2009

One of black metal's titans is back, and stepping out its comfort zone. But does the risk pay off?



Gorgoroth - Quantos Possunt ad Satanitatem
Review by Daniel Wilcox

Pest – vocals
Infernus – guitar
Boddel – bass
Tomas Asklund - drums

Track listing:
1. Aneuthanasia
2. Prayer
3. Rebirth
4. Building a Man
5. New Breed
6. Cleansing Fire
7. Human Sacrifice
8. Satan-Prometheus
9. Introibo ad Alatare Satanas

While I have quite an extensive collection of kind of music, this marks the first occasion I’ve ever attempted to review a black/death/doom/satanic metal album. And for the record, I don’t want to explore a distinction between those genres, because to anyone with a fully functioning brain, they’re all essentially one and the same, a mesh of growls, screams and general noise. At the end of the day, however, you either love this sort of thing or hate it. While I’m a fan, I don’t listen to it all that often, although Gorgoroth is one of the few bands in the genre that I listen to reasonably frequently. Incidentally, Gorgoroth is the fucking king of this kind of crap, and even though it has lost some of the creative force brought to the band by vocalist Gaahl and bassist King ov Hell (I know, awful names, but bear with me,), Pest has rejoined the band on the mic and ultimately these guys are still head and shoulders above everyone else in the genre.

Unfortunately, this record is absolutely nowhere near what the band are capable of. Now I may not be a typical black metal fan, but when I listen to this type of music, it’s because I want to rock the fuck out. I expect pulsating guitars that do their damnedest to tear my fucking face off and drown me in hatred, and lovely things like that. This record is nowhere near over the top enough for that sort of thing however, and for some strange reason makes a hasty attempt and being something more accessible, almost as if they were going to have a go at going mainstream or something. Who the fuck wants that when they listen to Gorgoroth? Don’t get me wrong, that old school balls-to-the-wall Gorgoroth is still there for the most part, but all too often they slow the pace down and get somewhat… dare I say it?... melodic. This is best demonstrated on the track “Rebirth,” which dawdles along at a tedious pace and honestly has no place on a Gorgoroth album. It’s like showing up at a brothel with a bottle of champagne and a bunch of roses. Fuck that.

On the Brightside, however, Pest is back, and he’s miles better than Gaahl ever was. For those not in the know, Pest was with the band for a while in the mid-nineties and did vocals on some of the band’s best work, including Under the Sign of Hell and a number of track from Destroyer. The guy doesn’t have much range but unlike most of the band’s previous vocalists (there have been many), he is by far the most tolerable of them all, and he never becomes repetitive or boring.

“Cleansing Fire” is the antithesis to the melancholy of the aforementioned “Rebirth.” It contains a furious and relentless energy that simply pummels, and the high end production ensures that it really does come off as impressive rather than reckless. It features some great arrangements comparable to the band’s best work. Similarly “New Breed,” which gets heavier and heavier as it progresses, is a tremendous little head-banger, and “Human Sacrifice” and “Satan-Prometheus” are both good, heavy tracks that feature, by far, the best drumming on the album. The former has some of the best guitar work too.

Still, in some places the instrumentation is really lacklustre. The only remaining founding member, Infernus, had far more creative input on this album than any of the band’s releases this decade, taking over song-writing duties and some lyrical duties as well. Many of the riffs he comes up with are too short and don’t really explore any new ground, and most of the album, ultimately, comes across as wasted potential. There are a couple more big releases within the genre this month that I hope to get round to reviewing, but from what I’ve heard of them so far, it really seems as though Gorgoroth are soon to be knocked off of their perch upon which they have been sitting for the last decade at least.

Essential downloads: “New Breed,” “Cleansing Fire,” “Human Sacrifice” and “Satan-Prometheus.”

The 411: Despite the return of the band's best vocalist Pest, Gorgoroth fail to reach the heights of some of their best albums, and by some distance too. Some of the tracks on the record are fast-paced and frantic, hellacious little nuggets of black metal goodness, but too often the band either rests on its laurels making uninspired music, or changes its signature sound in favor of something all the more downbeat, ambient and melancholy. A disappointment, but not a total waste.

Final Score:  6.0   [ Average ]