Review by Carl on September 28, 2023.

In 1993, something foul-smelling and utterly depraved came bubbling up from the darkest realms of France, intent on leaving a lasting scar on the rising black metal underground, so gather around and prepare to hear the legend of Gorgon's "Immortal Force" EP.

Both sides kick off with an atmospheric intro, and on both sides Gorgon comes roaring out of the Gates of Hell with a chaotic dose of unrelenting primitive black metal right after. At their most abrasive, they have me thinking of bands like Beherit, early Gorgoroth and Bestial Summoning , but the influence of old school Bathory and Impaled Nazarene is in there as well. Tremelo picked guitar abuse clashes with the throat shredding screams (like Burzum) and hoarse growls, while a battering car crash of percussion lies underneath this harsh layer of blackened death-noise, creating short tracks that exude psychotic madness like crazy. The band varies their music with slower parts among the hellish rage, delivering stomp and drive amidst the raging onslaught, while some sparse stabs of keyboards and oddly technical guitar leads add to the dementia on offer.

The production is truly steeped in underground ambience and raw as ground beef: the percussion is buried in the mix, the vocals and guitars struggle to get on the foreground, and when the keyboards and guitar leads come around, they arrive tearing through the wall of sound the band pulls up. Just to be clear, I love this kinda incompetent type of sound mix on an underground extreme metal release like this. It sounds unhinged and demented as hell, adding a kinda psychotic edge to proceedings. It's harsh, pitch-black, and totally awesome! When I think of early 90's black metal, you bet that sweet behind of yours that it comes close to sounding like this.

This is a great example of early 90's extreme metal, albeit suited only for the hardened underground fanatic. On their later output, they sounded more controlled and a bit more polished than they do on this EP. And while these are good albums for sure, "Immortal Horde" will always be my favorite release by these diabolic French Warriors of Darkness, simply because of the pulsating black chaos they exuded on this release.

Rating: 8 out of 10