Gorgoroth - Pentagram (Black Metal)

This album, Pentagram by the posers Gorgoroth, is the absolute nadir of black metal. It sucks so terribly, it drags the entire genre down by association.

By the way, Pentagram came out in October 1994. That's after Hvis Lyset Tar Oss (April 1994), after Transilvanian Hunger (February 1994), and after De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (May 1994). Basically, it came out after every other important black metal band had finished laying down their essential work. This is important because Gorgoroth, not content of being posers, are also latecomers to the genre and have, thus, no organic ties to the Norwegian black metal scene - despite interviews of Infernus claiming he "killed Euronymous and Dead" because they were "not Satanic enough". Sadly, [sic].

And that brings us to Pentagram, the debut album of Gorgoroth and perfect metonymy of third-wave black metal. It reeks of aesthetic replication, trendiness and try-hard posing.

It uses black metal's imagery, themes and aesthetics, not because - in the terms of eminent metal sociologue Brett Stevens - of what they signify in terms of spirit and worldview, to express a perception, a reaction, or a sentiment, but merely because they are black metal's imagery, themes and aesthetics. This isn't a black metal album meant to express something deep or profound. This is a "black album" about black metal.

Pentagram is an intentional cliché, pandering to a niche audience's limited perception of what black metal is, defined by the genre's most arbitrary mannerisms and most obsolete idiosyncrasies. It's an attempt to make a black metal album by aping its influences - Mayhem, Burzum, Graveland and Darkthrone - to the point of plagiarism and, bit by bit, piece by piece, mixing them up and randomly reassembling them back together in an incoherent mess of epic failure.

This album marks, more than the death of black metal, its rigor mortis, and more importantly, and sadly, the beginning of its assimilation into brainless mainstream "hard rock" music, à la Slaughter of the Soul. The only difference being that At the Gates had once produced one great metal album before devolving into AC/DC. Gorgoroth? Zero.

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