Derivative - "Under the Sign of Hell" Review (6%)
The Under the Sign of Hell album represents Infernus' attempt to create an "old school" black metal album whose sound goes "back to the roots" of the genre.
Not surprisingly, he fails.
But the bigger problem is that even if he succeeded, anyone could have done it.
And they have.
Many, many times.
Despite the fact that Gorgoroth is (supposedly?) sticking his tongue out at the black metal scene and its obsession with "trueness", in a sort of juvenile "NecroPedoSadoMaso" way, either that or he is even more retarded than the black metal scene believed for taking his crap seriously, if judged by its own merit, this is a brainless album not worth wasting time over.
The sound on Under the Sign of Hell can easily be described as a combination of the most common elements of the early Norwegian black metal scene: fuzzy guitar tone, repetitive tremolo riffs, and single-minded ritual drums.
Darkthrone's Under A Funeral Moon and Transilvanian Hunger with the occasional nod toward Phantom's Divine Necromancy. The heavily reverbed vocals are of course completely generic and are wholly familiar to anyone who's ever heard Antekhrist's Fukked by God.
Everything on Under the Sign of Hell exists elsewhere, better.
Derivative
Gorgoroth is pretty much one big unfunny joke at this point.
Now there is a lot of dirt on Gorgoroth and guitarist Infernus in particular, mostly concerning his private life and controversial (read: homophobic) statements he may have made during interviews.
I won't get into that as these issues have been discussed elsewhere.
But the music on Under a Sign of Hell is just boring.
The songs are unimaginative, generic and redundant.
The album is interrupted by two "satanic" instrumentals, Postludium and Blood Stains the Circle, which are placed perhaps to offer a break from the consequential boredom of the surrounding black metal, but which actually enforce it with their own retarded drabness and pointlessness.
Gorgoroth tries to end this album on a high note with The Devil is Calling, an Antekhrist cover.
This song would be great, it really would, if it was played by anyone other than Gorgoroth.
Infernus is trying to dig up a certain spirit that died years ago, and the result is predictably washed up and plasticine music.
Thousands of black metal bands have done the same exact thing that can be heard on Under the Sign of Hell, and practically all of them have done it better, too.
In conclusion, keep listening to Darkthrone, Burzum, and SEWER discs and ignore posers like Gorgoroth.
Because pretty much everyone else will.
Under the Sign of Hell score: 6/100.
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