This album by French black metal band Gorgon is, it seems, their follow up to their 2019 comeback album. I’m not so much embarrassed I missed that, but that the name rings no bells with me at all. On the plus side that has been the exact way I have made some excellent musical discoveries over the years so…onwards.

Well, the first track ‘Blood Of Sorcerer’ just kind of flies at you like a coiled facehugger. It’s all battery and fury and snarled vocals and a good explosion of energy. The hookline to the riff may have been heard a few times over the years but it still sounds handy and it had a good raw feral feel to everything here. ‘Death Was Here’ pretty much follows in the same vein of full-on assault with drop down gear sections to catch their breath. There is a punky feel to the track at times, mostly down to the vocals and drumming, but mostly this is just full on rather orthodox black metal which is what it says in the title anyway I guess.

‘Entrancing The Cemetery’ drops the pace just a touch though and I have to say for the better. The dark melodic side brings more to the table, a real atmosphere rising from it but the pace soon pricks up for ‘Let Me See Behind’ and I have to say despite repeated listens my brain constantly wanders here.

BTW: Should I say now that I’m always surprised when a French black metal band chooses to sing in English? I mean I don’t care either way but these days I find it notable.

Ah, look the problem is here that I just bounce off most of this stuff. Repeated playing’s haven’t altered that fact. What we have here is some furious and quite raw black metal that is pretty orthodox in style (not a criticism by any means). It has that streak of punk attack which works really well without overpowering the sound and they do also have a nice knack for darker melodic veins particularly in slower songs and sections. The title track is an excellent example and my favourite track on here with the bassline section and the punky roar start-up as the riff takes off again that has a little of the swagger of Slegest in it for a few moments. There is a lot of good here. There is an obvious and clear integrity to the band and when those melodic sections take off there is something really rather fine going on here.

The only real problem I have here is the songs. Or possibly the production. It’s hard to tell particularly with songs as good as ‘Traditio Satanae’ and ‘Entrancing The Cemetery’ here, but something about the songs here doesn’t crackle and roar in quite the way they should for me. I think that others will have not one ounce of a problem though, so I’ll add an extra half point on for them. I think in the end this is one of those “there’s nothing wrong here, nothing at all, just doesn’t make me scream” kinda albums.

Well worth a listen though and I think live all this might come together.

(6.5/10 Gizmo)

https://www.facebook.com/Gorgon.blackmetal.fr

https://osmoseproductions.bandcamp.com/album/traditio-satanae