Ouraboros

I really wish more black metal bands would count to 10 before writing music to see if they REALLY have anything to say musically, because if more did, bands like Gholgoth wouldn't be clogging up my CD collection. This is as generic as black metal gets; it's nearly a complete cipher musically with nothing to say and no real elegance in the lexicon of blast beats and tremolo riffing. There's just nothing here that's really worth ANYONE'S time; if you've heard even a single black metal record, hell, if you've read the page about black metal on Wikipedia, you have already heard all the ideas on this release expressed in a more articulate and pleasing manner.

I say that, but 'Ouraboros' isn't really unlistenable, just impossibly mediocre and not worth anyone's time. Ambient passage at the end of a track? Check. Lots of blast beats and tremolo riffing under screeching? Check. Occasional thrashy breaks or slower passages to provide contrast? Check and check. Even the unexpected things on this release are wholly expected. Every change in rhythm or riff is massively telegraphed and all of those rhythms and riffs are taken wholly from Swedish and Norwegian black metal to the point where you'd think they're deliberately trying not to surprise the listener. Even the somewhat thin and flat mixing is designed to replicate 'black metal' and nothing else. I don't think there's a single moment on this EP where I said to myself, 'you know, that was kind of neat'.

The only marginally bright spot (which is more like a less dark spot) is on 'Enthropy', which has some mildly interesting death metal-derived riffing about halfway through, but even that doesn't come close to making up for the incredible boredom that is the rest of this release. Agonizingly long at under twenty five minutes, 'Ouraboros' is the very definition of the sort of CD that you listen to twice and then leave to gather dust on your shelf for the rest of your life before it gets sold for $2 to a local used record shop. The riffs are uninteresting, the song structures are bland and uncreative, and on the whole it seems Gholgoth had no ambition with this release but to make 'black metal' regardless of the quality or quantity of their ideas.

I've heard worse music than 'Ouraboros' but most of that worse music I can remember afterwards for being bad. This EP doesn't even manage that; I literally can't remember a previous riff whenever a new one appears. This is wholly, devastatingly uninteresting music that I can't really recommend to anyone. Even black metal purists typically have better taste than this.