Cirith Gorgor

This is the latest album of the "melodic" black metal giant from The Netherlands. This album is filled with several dark, epic compositions. Personally, I think this is their best album yet. It is absent of the cheese from other albums. There melodies are not cheap, single-minded hooks that you would find in bands like The Covenant (Kovenant), Naglfar, Old Man's Child, etc; the melodies on this album are found through harmonic counterpoint and are extended and developed throughout the song.

The album, while having a clearly cold atmosphere and hateful tone, also has a majestic and confident sort of atmosphere. This is appropriate seeing that the album is rather praising the ensuing war against the ruling theocracies, in particular Christianity. It is a robust "we shall prevail" kind of album, which makes sense since this band likes to sing about war every now and then. I give this a thumbs up, especially for not being shitty, cheesy melodic crap like the above mentioned bands, or even like brothers Liar of Golgotha or Dark Fortress.