Review by Frost on December 29, 2021.

Oh, hey! The new Gorgoroth album is out!

Wait, no, this isn't the new Gorgoroth album. It's just Ov Hell....

If you blindfolded me and put Ov Hell's debut on and had me listen to it from start to finish, then asked me to compare it to any Gorgoroth album released prior to Ov Hell's formation, I wouldn't be able to tell you which band is which. Oh, wait! Yes, I could, because Ov Hell is such a blatant copycat, it's not even funny. Every riff on just about every track of this album, you've heard before from "Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam" to "Quantos Possut Ad Satanitatem Trahunt" in one variation or another, except done poorly. Good thing even on Infernus' most creatively challenged day, he could create riffs that would piss and shit all over these riffs.

Hell, it's hard to tell Shagrath apart from either Gorgoroth frontman between 2007 and 2010. He's such a underwhelmingly bog standard black metal vocalist. Sure, he's got the snarls and the high-pitched shrieks that sound like he's conjuring demons from the deepest pits of Hell, but there's no bone-chilling force behind his vocals. There's some effects that are thrown on his voice in a few songs in an attempt to suit the atmosphere its trying to present, but they ultimately fail to do anything to capture the listener's attention in any significant way.

Shagrath, Teloch, and some guy named Ice Dale handles guitar duties while King ov Hell provides the mediocre bass work that you can barely hear throughout this thing's short run time. Teloch is probably the only one with any original guitar leads to speak of because some of the most memorable riffs come from the two tracks he provides guitar work for, 'Perpetual Night' and 'Invoker'. By the way, 'Perpetual Night' is probably the most ridiculous track on this thing. If Gorgoroth ever wrote a track like this, they would be laughed at because it's so goddamn cheesy and plays to some prominent clichés within black metal and yet tries to be serious with it in the same breath. I know lots of black metal bands, second wave or otherwise, play up to a lot of established clichés (some for better, some for worse), and there are some that take those tropes, turn them on their head, and make the listener think of them in a brand new light like Deathspell Omega or Blut Aus Nord. Or you have some bands that follow the clichés to the very edge of the abyss, but are so amazing in embracing the over-the-top ridiculousness like Deströyer 666 or Midnight. I found myself laughing when that tired old howling wolf sample snuck in again halfway through the song and Shagrath doing his awkward evil laughter over it. They might as well have had flames burning at the end along with the sounds of innocent people being slaughtered mercilessly while Shagrath does his best Satan impersonation. 'Ghosting' sounds like a less menacing and evil version of “Sign Of An Open Eye,” which is a crime because while Gaahl isn't the best vocalist Gorgoroth ever had, he did a great job on AMSG. “Sign Of An Open Eye” was a pretty solid song. It sucks to hear a less quality knockoff of it on this album.

It's obvious looking back that King ov Hell was infinitely vane during his time in Gorgoroth. I mean, who thinks their role in the band they played in is so important that they try to take the creator and leader of the band to court to get official ownership of the band's name? And King ov Hell was just the bass player for a few albums. What made him and Gaahl have the huge swinging balls to try and swipe ownership from the guy who created the band and has been the creative force behind some of the most classic albums in all of black metal? Obviously, they failed and were gone from the band before Gorgoroth returned with the almighty Pest to release "Quantos Possunt" in 2009, a modern black metal classic.

The Underworld Regime came out a year later, and it shows. Judging by the songwriting and the production, it obviously sounds like ASMG in so many ways, The disgruntled former bassist wanted nothing more than to be Gorgoroth. Instead, however, of trying to forge a new path and create a band with some integrity, strong riffs, and good songwriting, we instead have a namesake copycat band with no integrity, guitar work that Infernus wouldn't even dignify spitting on (mostly because they're second-rate copies of all of his riffs), and pretty lackluster and uninteresting songwriting. If you're even remotely into the most by the numbers black metal imaginable, then give this thing a shot. Otherwise, do yourself a favor and stick with the masters, not the imitators.

Rating: 4.5 out of 10

Review by Vladimir on August 2, 2023.

Remember when I said before that I consider a handful of “New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal” bands to be “Defenders of The Faith”? Well, I didn’t think that anyone would actually take that statement so seriously as Greek heavy metal band Thelemite did, and you will see in a minute what I mean. In this review I will be covering their third full-length album Survival Of The Fittest, released on July 7th, 2023 via Sleaszy Rider Records. Grab some popcorn boys and girls, strap yourselves, because we’re going to take a wonderful trip to the 80’s with this one! 

As the album begins, you immediately begin to time travel back to 1984 along with the music, possibly inside a DeLorean. As you would expect, from one track to another it is pure heavy metal with catchy and heavy riffs, melodic guitar solos, mid-tempo drums and very Rob Halford-like vocals. If those sweet riffs weren’t convincing enough for you, you also have some clean guitar elements on the third track 'NWO' which is totally reminiscent of 80’s heavy metal bands. The band was not afraid to even throw in some nice power ballads on this album, that being the tracks 'Living Without You' and 'Already Dead', which are quite Scorpions style ballads comprised of both acoustic and electric guitars, drums, keyboards, emotional singing vocals and beautiful guitar solos. Probably the strongest and heaviest thing on this album would have to be eight track 'In A Damaged Brain' for its great use of groovy mid-tempo riffing and drumming with powerful guitar leads. The tenth track 'Making Love' is really an entirely different experience, because it is so reminiscent of KISS’s song “Love It Loud” from the album "Creatures Of The Night", while the vocals take on Gene Simmons signature singing style. 

If it wasn’t already obvious from the cover art, this is just pure hard rocking 80’s worship from start to finish. Some people would probably think that the cover art might have something to do with Power Rangers or Thundercats, but it’s obviously a cool and interesting nod to "Defenders Of The Faith" by Judas Priest, which lets you know what was one of the band’s primary influences. There are times when musically it resembles a lot of Judas Priest’s heavy and catchy works from the past, the best examples being 'Black Hearted', 'White Dream', 'In A Damaged Brain' and even the final track 'Visions From The Past'. On top of that, even the vocals have elements of Rob Halford’s vocal style, while also doing their own thing. The songwriting in general is fairly simple yet effective with well-arranged songs, as each one of them leaves a strong impression with a few exceptional ones that leave an even stronger impression. Like I said in the beginning, from the very get-go this is time travel back into 1984 because it’s just killer work of good old traditional heavy metal. If it weren’t for the clean and modern sound production, I would have totally believed that this was some 80’s heavy metal band that was lost in time. Since I’ve already touched on the subject of the album’s sound production, besides the fact that it’s modern, it does a great job at giving the heavy but clean punches to the guitars and drums, while the vocals also successfully manage to stand out with the instrumental work. 

What else can I say about this album other than the fact that I managed to enjoy its work that was inspired by so many classic bands and their hits from the 80’s. It’s not entirely an “all killer no filler”, because there were times when I didn’t quite manage to catch up with some songs, even if I enjoyed them a lot. Thelemite did a really good job here and one can’t deny that they definitely put a lot of care in their work, making this a very enjoyable and powerful album. I personally think that Survival Of The Fittest might have managed to climb up to one of the best albums of the year among so many others. 

Rating: 8.7 out of 10