Cirith Gorgor

I have a rather nostalgic relationship with Cirith Gorgor. They were a band I came across very early in my introduction to black metal, when I stumbled upon their Myspace profile (yep, that long ago) as an early teenager and heard a collection of songs from their first 3 records in the playlist. I immediately loved what I heard, found this album and loved it too, and became an instant fan. But while my interest in them waned when their most recent couple albums lost me, they never truly fell off my radar. Every now and then I'd browse their socials and see what they're up to, with a curiosity if I'd ever see them play a gig here in Toronto and check-off a band that played a role in my formative years as a black metal listener.

And every now and then, there would be a day - like yesterday - where I'd scroll through my iTunes looking for something to listen to, see Cirith Gorgor pop up, hit play on this self-titled album and be immediately reminded how FUCKING AWESOME this record is.

You see, what made Cirith Gorgor such a special band to me was how incredibly catchy all of their songs were, without coming across as corny and without sacrificing any sense of extremity or energy. I would dare say this album is 'hooky', but not in the poppy sense the word; more-so that you have very well crafted, elaborate and dynamic melodies that are pleasing to the ear, are memorable and distinguishable from one another, and are fucking addictive and tough to get out of your head once you've heard them. Playing-wise, while the guitars are conventionally black metal in their execution, they make an effort to not resort to solely tremolo-picked leads. Yes, they're there, but these melodies are also highlighted in picking patterns, solo-y leads and the occasional full-blown guitar solo, ample voice-leading within the chord progressions, or they're traded back and forth between the 2 guitars or even contrapuntally arranged (for those who don't know, counterpoint refers to 2 different melodies played at the same time and complimenting each other, as opposed to totally joining forces and harmonizing a single theme). But even if they take the typical arrangement of 'rhythm guitar - lead guitar', they're harmonically rich enough show that Marchosias and Inferno placed a great importance on writing hooks that truly sink in, and made an effort to play them in ways that keeps them excited - even if that means playing the occasional major chord (*GASP*). And yet, absolutely none of it feels whimsical or cheesy at all.

But as truly sing-able as much of this album is, it is as equally violent, explosive and goddamn ferocious. The energy behind every moment of this record is unrelenting. Levithmong always brought a good amount of energy to Cirith Gorgor's overall sound, but the fury displayed in his drumming on this record ended up influencing the rest of the band to perform with the same vigor and turn the band into a completely catastrophic force that is nothing short of an absolute onslaught. Seriously, this album will rip your balls off. And while there are indeed times where the band foregoes melody in exchange for complete and utter savagery (such as the 3:40 mark in Demonic Incarnation, the verses in The Black Hordes or the beginning of Total Annihilation), much of this cataclysm is seamlessly fused with the utterly remarkable melody writing to the point where they truly are in complete unity. While there's no shortage of menacing black metal bands, and although other bands - both before them, and since - have reached greater heights with their melodicism, I can't think of many other bands in all my years of listening to black metal that have melded melodic beauty with sheer ballistic ferocity quite like Cirith Gorgor did here, this self-titled record perhaps being the apex of it all.

Vocally, it's a bit of a different story. If you're famliar with the band's history, you may recall that in the years since this album came out, Cirith Gorgor chose to re-record the vocals for a few of these songs as bonus tracks to the remaster/reissue of the Firestorm Apocalypse record (performed by their original vocalist Nimroth) and last year as a full-blown redo with their current singer Pestus. It's not hard to see why - Levithmong's vocals sound overly throaty to get a tone very similar to what Ihsahn sounded like on Emperor's In The Nightside Eclipse, except with hardly any lung power behind it at all. I'll give Levithmong the benefit of the doubt though because with having just lost Nimroth on lead vocals, he probably decided "fuck it, I'll do it myself". I don't hate his vocal sound; I don't think it's bad in itself, and I've grown to tolerate it, accept it and find a certain level of enjoyment in it. I just think it would have been worth it to delay the vocal recordings a little bit to either give him more time to practice and work on his overall power, or to get someone else to do it. So props to Levithmong for having the balls to step up to the plate and get the job done, but I can also understand why this band remained unsatisfied to the point of redoing the vocals later (for some songs, twice).

The only other fault I can find with this record is that while individual songs can indeed be addictive, listening to the whole album in one sitting can be a little daunting. Partially because even if there are moments where the band breaks from the blast beats and starts to groove, the album rarely feels like it 'lets up' due to how incredibly loud the the production is and how incredibly far forward the guitars are in the mix (they could be brought down at least a bit to make room for everything else, though this admittedly does contribute to the vicious energy the songs have and when they remastered this later on, they went too far with lowering the guitars and as a result the album feels a bit neutered - even if it has a better vocal performance). The other reason is because while "Der Untergang... / Победа !!!" isn't a bad song in itself and has its high moments, it's overall not as strong as the rest of the album and the marching vibe it has - while obviously playing into the war theme of the song itself - is the only part of this record that feels forced. I would have been okay with scrapping this song and ending the album on "Warcry Of The Southern Lands" which emotionally captures the "closing track" vibe way better and is just a fucking spectacular composition in general. That would bring the album to roughly 42 minutes, a perfect length for a record this destructive, and rather than feeling like I need a nap afterwards, I'd feel more compelled to play the album in 1 full sitting, go right back to the beginning, and repeat.

....so that's basically what I do, and it works like a charm. What you're left with is a fucking great black metal record that is as beautifully melodic as it is fucking ferocious, written by a great band that I'm amazed seems to still reside in the deep underground as opposed to being more widely known and praised. Because while they're not perfect, Cirith Gorgor still rival many of their peers, and in some cases outclass bands that seem to get significantly more recognition, and that's a fucking crime.