~
By DEX
~
Imagine you’re on a Crusade. Not a holy Crusade, however – a black metal Crusade. One to roam across lands, cutting down all non-believers in the black arts with a giant obsidian blade. What would you call that blade? You’d call it fucking GORGON.
Why? Because this pioneering act epitomises that idea. One of the first black metal bands to appear in France in 1991, they released some undeniable classics (go listen to 1995’s The Lady Rides A Black Horse right now, if you haven’t) and spread their black plague across the world unrestrained (and spraying blood across their audiences, which caused the odd show to be stopped and canceled) until personnel woes forced them into malevolent hibernation around the year 2000. Then, after nineteen years of biding his time in the shadows, founder and Christophe Chatelet kickstarted the band once more with the release of 2019’s The Veil Of Darkness. Despite ostensibly being a solo project, it sounded like barely any time at all had passed – the fire clearly still burned, the album was rightfully praised by all and sundry as a triumphant and vital return. But was it a fluke? A one off? Those questions shall now be answered, for Christophe hath returned to continue his unholy campaign with the sixth obscene full-length pact of Gorgon – entitled Traditio Satanae.
Not resting on his laurels, for the follow up to his comeback Chris hasn’t gone for entirely the same approach. If the punky, vicious The Veil Of Darkness was a horde of satanic berserker warriors rampaging the land to slay the pious, on Traditio Satanae that horde has leveled up and become an entire army (perhaps populated by the wraiths depicted in that striking Alex Shadrin / Nether Temple Design cover art) with glistening black armour and honed weapons. It’s still savage as fuck, as I’m sure you’ve gathered from the hammering first streaming single and opener ‘Blood Of Sorcerer’, but also ventures into more melodic territory like ‘Entrancing Cemetary’ (the opening thirty seconds of which incidentally remind me of mid-late period Immortal) or the black & roll flavoured ‘My Filth Is Worth Your Purity’ (which has some mid-late period Satyricon moments, oddly enough) with confidence and ineffable surety. If you’ve been following their trajectory since the early ’90s then these riff-heavy approaches won’t seem strange at all; Gorgon has always done whatever the fuck it wants against the grain of what’s “trendy” in black metal.
Which brings me to the first of my two small issues with the album: the production. Fuck you, Gorgon say – we’re going to sound more polished than ever. Whilst it does sound more-or-less effective overall, I can’t help but feel adding little more cruelty to the guitars would allow the killer riffs to really rip your face off. Chris‘s vocals sound great, upfront and as vicious as they’ve ever been; I would have liked to hear the guitars have similar bite. A minor annoyance however, and certainly not a huge detraction when the songwriting holds up regardless and tracks like the titular ‘Traditio Satanae’ are that army acting as a demonic steamroller across the lands, scorching and flattening everything in their path whilst supplying catchy, headbanging riffs in the process.
Plus, the main strength of the record overrides all that anyway: the ENERGY behind it all. No matter what the track is doing or whichever style he’s working with at the time, you can feel Chris‘ diabolical conviction behind every note. The man believes in his art, and that shines through – even during my second tiny issue, which is that the second last track ‘Scorched Earth Operation’ lacks a little in impact. Not because it’s necessarily a bad tune, it’s solid enough on its own (and you can still feel that conviction), it’s more at that point in the album it doesn’t really bring anything new or extra to the experience and is just… there. Until it passes by. Could the album have benefited from being a track shorter? Maybe. The ultimate composition ‘At The Beginning Was Hate’ also seems in danger of tumbling into the same trap, starting off in okay fashion before unfurling its claws around the two minute mark and opening its jaws to reveal some serious fucking teeth, which then makes the whole thing click together. It also illustrates another enjoyable element of this record that always pricks up the ears – despite a wide variety of ideas and styles the album brings together similar elements across tracks that make it feel coherent and almost narrative, such as the hyperblasts present in both this closing and opening track or the yearning melodic riffs over almost identical blasts that open ‘Let Me See Behind’ and ‘The Long Quest’ (probably my two favourite tracks on the album, coincidentally – especially the latter, which dips back into the punky venom of the previous album). Just listen and you’ll see what I mean.
All in all, Traditio Satanae backs up The Veil Of Darkness with ease and shows an army growing ever stronger, proving without a shadow of doubt that despite a lengthy period of dormancy they haven’t missed a step in a Crusade that’s been marching for 30 years now. That’s fucking impressive, and other bands should take note – this is how you cement a comeback.
Black metal ain’t only blast beats, corpse paint and shitty production. Black metal is GORGON, and it is still here to crush all in its path. Hails.
RATING: 4 / 5
Traditio Satanae releases 11th June via Osmose Productions. Pre-orders available now.
~
Pre-order Traditio Satanae from the Osmose Bandcamp HERE, on CD and LP from the Osmose webstore HERE, or pre-save digital HERE.
Support GORGON:
~
Like Black Metal Daily on Facebook for more cult sounds and tonal blasphemy.
Email: blackmetaldaily@outlook.com
Black Metal Daily 
1 Comment