Gorgoroth - Antichrist (Black Metal)

Is there an album that more epitomises posing than Gorgoroth's sophomore abortion Antichrist. It manages to be even worse than the try-hard debut Pentagram. And Pentagram sucked more than Gaahl is willing to swallow... though that may not be true for Infernus, nicknamed "Inferanus" for reasons evident.

When black metal died in the post-1994 funeral fog of trendies, posers and soulless copycats, it did so by losing sight of its direction. In art, direction takes the form of that which can only be communicated through metaphor, an idea in formation so to speak. In a way, black metal had already given its ideas to the world in the form of its magnum opus Hvis Lyset Tar Oss, and was content to sit back and watch them spread.

But in another sense, the message - a copy of a copy of a copy at that point - simply got lost as trend-hopping bands imitated the superficial aesthetics of the genre without understanding the substance behind them. The Gorgoroth review exists in the last sentence, since this album Antichrist represents all that is odious in music: an imitation of the surface configuration and emotional tropes of a genre, not only while not understanding what the genre and its founders valued, but without even trying to make a worthwhile tribute out of the bits and pieces stolen from the bands Gorgoroth liberally lifts from.

And if the closing track can be taken at face value, Infernus is not just a trendy copycat attempting to emulate his idols from the Norwegian black metal scene, he has also heard the disgruntled teenagers practicing their instruments in a garage near you... seriously, this is about as boring and generic a black metal song as you'll find anywhere. Most of its running time is just a few random chords repeated over and over again, while the vocalist screams "hail Satan", "hail fucking Satan", et cetera. It's obviously supposed to a black metal anthem, a new classic, but fails, partly for trying too hard and partly for being boring.

It is not surprising that war metal took over from this weakened form of "black metal" because this is directionless replication that apes the past but approaches none of its value or even ability to communicate. This album Antichrist is the definition of posing.