Band's List Black Metal Gorgoroth (NOR) Under the Sign of Hell 2011

When I wrote my review for the original “Under the Sign of Hell”, I said that I liked it, despite the wonky production. Sometimes, there’s an intangible factor that makes an album worth listening to, no matter how flawed.

That said, what was Infernus thinking??

There have been other bands that take older albums and remaster, or in rare cases, re-record them. Re-recording is something of a mixed bag, as the end result may not appeal to the long-time fanbase. Dimmu Borgir did this with “Stormblåst”, and I rather enjoyed it. I cannot say the same here. This was an exercise in sterility.

The production was very clean and mostly balanced. The drums were a bit too forward, but that’s the least of my criticism. The drums, again, sounded lifeless and mechanical. For as horrible as they sounded in the original, you knew that there was a person at the kit beating the hell out of it.

Pest was in fine form again, especially in his delivery of “Profetens Åpenbaring”. I’ve heard other Gorgoroth vocalists perform this song, and I don’t think they came close to matching Pest’s delivery. Infernus performed the guitars and bass, and Tomas Asklund was on the drums again.

I will add one good thing about this un-necessary re-recording; they didn’t attempt to re-create “Postludium”. I can’t even conceive of the mess that would have been.