The world in which most Black Metal bands move is a pretty sinister and self contained one. Unlike many genres of music that claim to have a sub-culture few can boast murder, rape and numerous church burnings amongst crimes which various band members have been accused of and charged with over the years, and Gorgoroth have more than their fair share of dark days in their past. This lets be fair does as much to attract people to Black Metal as it does to deter them.

Imagery plays a fundamental part in the arsenal of any good Black Metal band, from the corpse paint to the satanic sympathies. All essential in building the myth that so many Black Metal bands crave and seek to perpetuate. Like all good pantomime you need to try and look beyond the obvious facade and see how much of the beliefs are real and how much is window dressing to build the illusion used to mask what can often be a very average album.

This brings me onto ‘Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt’, Gorgorth’s eighth studio album. Written amid the bitter court room wrangle over rights to the bands name and less than amicable band split, Infernus could have been forgiven for taking his eye off the ball and produced a load of old dross. It is to his credit however that the quality of the album does not appear to have diminished as a consequence of Gaahl and King’s departure, rather the opposite in fact. Pest and Tormentor’s re-introduction to the Gorgorth ranks appears to have been just the shot in the arm the band needed to take a much needed step forward.

The vocal display of Pest , with his shrill shrieks brings a little more variety than we had seen from Gaahl over recent years, while Tormentor’s presence has spurred Infernus to new creative levels, with each song challenging the Black Metal normality while never compromising in its brutality. The majority of the albums mood is achieved by Infernus’s clever use of tempo changes, from the slower ‘Building a Man’ to the flesh ripping ‘Rebirth’, each as dynamic as the next yet still unique in their own right. Unlike so many of their contemporises Gorgorth and specifically ‘Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt’ is all about substance and the end result. Still truly Black Metal of the darkest kind it is refreshing to have the spot light on this band for all the right reasons.