Black metal bands usually come well sign-posted with names and imagery to save you having to actually put the record on the turntable to get the overall message. No prizes for figuring out that A Transylvanian Funeral may be inspired by those bludgeoning black metal punks Darkthrone with its heart somewhere around 1993. The sound here is unforgiving, old school and something of a departure from early works by the band – a one man black metal obsessive from Tucson, Arizona. The man behind the operation, Sleepwalker, also runs the label effectively making this a self-released effort. His previous full-length The Outsider (name your price at bandcamp) had its hobnail boots similarly planted in the early days of black metal and benefited from a few twists and turns and a slightly more melodic approach to the riffs. It was broadly well received in underground circles, and rightly so. Gorgos is a much more aggressive and wilfully dark and impenetrable stab at the genre. More determinedly no-frills and underground and with a sound that could have been recorded in the basement of a house inhabited by a multi-murdering psychopath rather than the lightning-scarred and snow swept mountainside of its predecessor. The first track Cold Blood and Darkness, for example, is denser and more bass-heavy and the sound pretty much continues in that vein.
A Transylvanian Funeral is undoubtedly of a quality that a lot of one man black metal releases fail to achieve and this release will appeal to addicts of the scene. But Gorgos suffers from the occasional malaise of the black metal one-man band: what can be interpreted on the one hand as a bold and focused approach also leaves it all feeling a bit one dimensional. The tracks in many cases are based around a constant time signature, with a few exceptions, and the first 20 minutes brings very little variation and relief to the slaughtering block. Gorgos Goetia hurls itself headlong through each subsequent track but the trajectory feels too straight and too narrow. The sound is explored more fully later on (Fear and Hymn to a Gorgon slow the pace a little) but never veering too far from the path. The riffs were also pretty well worn by repetition it leaves the album over-long and creaking under its own inexorable pace. There are some elements of it I really liked such as the occasional use of rock and roll drum patterns rather than just all-out blast beats and there is an unmistakable and malicious southern twang to the guitar sound that gives the release a personality of its own. At times I even thought this might turn the corner into something more immersive. But in the end its determination to be uncompromising in fact just leaves it lacking the bristling energy of The Outsider.
Raising your clawed hand to the dark is a fine thing but even the grimmest basement torture chamber needs a slither of light shining on its victim every now and again to offer a shred of hope. If you’re not careful you just end up with a 72 minute marathon of steady drum patterns and repeated riffs that feels like they are screaming out for a bit more inspiration. This is better than the average, there is no doubt of that, and there is a respectable underground intention here. But this sound has been well explored elsewhere and there is not enough here for me to argue there is anything new being added to the sum of black knowledge.
(6/10 Reverend Darkstanley)
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