Customer Reviews

True Norwegian Black Metal: Live in Grieghallen

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

*Scratches head.* Okay. Why is it that, in the midst of so much soap opera-like drama between Infernus and Gaahl and King, all this stuff is getting released? First it was the Krakow DVD, now this. I saw that this had been released, and my first thoughts were, "Which Gorgoroth released it?" Well, I still don't know that, I have enough drama in my own life to bother looking up what is actually going with Norway's biggest drama queens, but I wonder if this was actually necessary. But anyway, onto the actual disc...

Continuing in a time-honoured tradition of overly-short Gorgoroth discs, this runs just over half an hour. This "live" part is sort of a misnomer, i.e. recorded in the studio. "Live" as opposed to "dead," I guess. That would explain the lack of crowd noise, anyway and the semi-clean-ish production. Okay, not exactly clean, I mean, it's Gorgoroth, you're not supposed to be able to make out exactly what is happening in the music, but despite all the distortion it still sounds like a studio recording. The vocals are actually mixed a bit prominently, and I was amazed that, for the first time ever, I could make out most of the lyrics. As much as I love Gaahl, I still cringe when I hear him do stuff that originally had Pest on vocals because Gaahl tends to be so much more nasal-sounding. The only exception is "Profetens Aapenbaring." I've read so many reviews in which people hate on Gaahl singing this (emphasis on the word "singing" here), and I think he sounds pretty good here, actually, except the silly noise he makes at the beginning. I'm inordinately fond of that song though, so I may be biased. On the other hand, I'm inordinately fond of "Blood Stains the Circle" and I was grossly offended by how Gaahl sounded on that on the live DVD.

Some of this just feels like a sort of pointless re-recording of older Gorgoroth material but with Gaahl instead of Pest. Still, it sounds good, and it is kind of nice to hear different versions of the same old stuff, even if it isn't really all that different. In fact the mixing on this is pretty good. I'm not crazy about the drum sound, but overall it still sounds good.

"Unchain my Heart!!!" is probably my favorite later-era Gorgoroth song, and the guitars are sounding excellent, despite the questionable vocal effects halfway through. This song is why it makes me sad that Infernus and the others are fighting. [*weeps bitterly*]

So maybe I've changed my mind and don't see this as a pointless release anymore, but if you don't have a Gorgoroth shirt for every day of the week, chances are you don't like them enough to merit spending your hard-earned cash on it. If you do (and I do), it's nice but still feels slightly redundant after the release of the DVD. I'm going to rate this highly because it sounds good though.

This was a strange release. It was marketed as a live album, but it is actually not live at all. It was recorded in the Grieghallen, where many other Norwegian records were recorded (Mayhem, Emperor, etc).

Not only is it not live, but it isn't really a full Gorgoroth lineup performing here. Infernus plays all the guitars, including bass, and had a friend come in to do session drums.

The end result is stunning, in my opinion. These are all terrific versions of these songs, and the set list is well chosen. The version of Destroyer here is the best one I've heard. I wouldn't have minded a few more songs, actually. Maybe something from Incipit Satan and more from Destroyer.

You can hear what's going on in these versions better than in the originals. All the subtleties and dynamics are more pronounced. The guitar tone is great, as is the mix. It's just raw and ugly enough. One thing I hate is overproduced metal. This has the necessary energy and grit, but the levels are perfect.

The vocals sound a little thin in spots. They lay there kind of flat. That's really my only complaint, but overall the vocals work well.

I think this is much better than the newest Gorgoroth, Quantos Possunt whatever whatever Trahunt. That one was slick, too melodic. Quite boring for me. Produced and a bit tame. All the things Gorgoroth used to kind of avoid.

As the title says it, this particular cd was the last one from the former vocalist of Gorgoroth Gaahl. I taught it was going to suck since it said it was live and expected to hear lots of crowd noise, but ended up being like a rehearsal thing. I love the guitar job coming from Infernus and Teloch. Gaahl does good on vocals, but I still think Pest is the man for the job. I read that this album was re-done with Pest's vocals, which I'm waiting anxiously for it, hopefully it remains in the same format as this one.