WW

Many great albums trigger emotions just by their name. “At War with Satan”, “Ride the Lightning” or “Piece of Mind”, to name but a few. Other releases miss this chance and have names like “WW”… What the hell – of course, we know what is meant and the artwork does not try to hide the topic of the album. Either way, Gehenna chose a pretty stupid title for their fifth full-length. Maybe they knew that their reputation had been heavily damaged due to the weak and uninspired “Murder” album and so they put the focus on the music exclusively?

Well, the material was better than that of their worst full-length, but it also left room for improvement and lacked the eerie atmosphere of their first releases. That’s the misfortune of “WW” – it does not reflect any sign of the original DNA of Gehenna. On the other hand, if we try to see this album that stands on its own feet, without band history and further non-musical aspects, one can enjoy the songs to a certain degree. Okay, the opener fails to spark emotions due to the lifeless drumming and the uninspired ending of the track also sucks. But this under-average appearance remains an exception. As the record progresses, things are getting better. There are dark riffs, the double bass increases the dynamic and intensity of the songs and the vocals are monotonous but powerful and hostile at the same time. The pieces do not lack substance and it is not only the sinister closer that convinces due to its expressive guitar lines. Already track no. 2, “Death to Them All” offers mature guitar lines and highly intensive sequences. “Silence of the Earth” with its ominous guitar lines and death-announcing keyboards also leaves its footprints and the same can be said about “Werewolf”, inter alia due to its pronounced main riff at the beginning of the song.

Production-wise, the album can rely on a fundamental heaviness. Drums, guitars and vocals are well balanced. The only major flaw is, as indicated above, that the sound does not reflect the spirit of black metal. “WW” shows a rather sober approach – here we are, we play music, nothing else, and we do not care about emotions. But in my humble opinion, doing the main tasks of the job is okay, but sometimes not enough, at least not enough to reach the highest regions of the rating scale. And so it is an album that does not annoy, but it is no album you need to listen to again and again. Without connections to the great era of the band, “WW” appears like an orphan and we know that unfortunately orphans often have to struggle in order to find their place. I cannot say that I have found an adequate one for Gehenna’s work, although I like it to a certain degree.

I was Gehenna fan ever since 1996 or 97 - whenever Mystic Productions released "Seen Through the Veils of Darkness" and "Malice" on tapes here in Poland. But I have to say that at some point it was a real challenge to keep liking this band. I hated all these radical musical changes they started to make. "Adimiron Black" was still pretty interesting, but "Murder" turned into a real piece of garbage for me. Even nowadays I just can't stand this album. Luckily five years after that horrible CD, "WW" came out. And well, I have to say that this album is a real back to form for me. It's again very different to the previous albums, it has very little to with Gehenna style from the older efforts. But at least they came back to black metal sound. And that's good!

As we all know, Gehenna started as a mystic, very dark and melodic sounding "symphonic" black metal band. Their music was filled with keyboards and generated a real eerie, majestic sound. And songs like "A Witch is Born", "The Word Became Flesh", "She Who Loves the Flames" or "The Shivering Voice of the Ghost" were real highlights of their career and my personal favourited. "WW" returns to black metal roots, but it’s completely derived of all keyboards or melodic accents Gehenna music used to have. Instead, it offers much harsher, more primeval and traditional take on this style. You can compare it to Mayhem, Satyricon, mid-era Darkthrone or even Burzum. But at the same time the music is enough characteristic for Gehenna to defend itself. That's because Gehenna created their own feeling in the music - great combination of killer riffage with ghoulish vocals of Sanrabb, insane drumming from Frost (YES! Frost played drums here!!!) and that vicious, morbid atmosphere. It's incredible that within this style of black metal "WW" sounds so fresh and these songs are so memorable and catchy. It's aggressive and harsh, but every song is surprisingly hooky and stays in mind immediately, due to the presence of some great riffs or choruses, or whatever. "WW" is also pretty well diverse, with fast paced tracks like "Death to Them All", "New Blood", "Abattoir"... But slower songs like "Flames to the Pit" and "Pallbearer" are simply fantastic, especially that they tend to merge the Burzum-esque melancholy and harshness of slow paced Darkthrone riffage. And yes, Satyricon vibe could also be felt over these slower riffs, like in "Silence the Earth". The album is short, but really to the point and without a single second wasted. It kicks off with fierce, aggressive black metal and keeps you highly impressed for the whole duration. I'm very glad this band came up with such a splendid album.

Lyrically Gehenna seem to have changed a lot also, "WW" is about war, death, extinction, hatred ("dance to the rhythm of necks when they break!"), so the "message" is much, much more negative than the satanic, but "romantic" theme of the old albums. So, the album is different in every aspect. But it's a good turn for the band and I can definitely say that "WW" is one of my favourite releases in Gehenna discography.

Standout tracks: "Death to Them All", "Flames of the Pit", "Pallbearer"
Verdict: 90/100

I can't have been the only person dissatisfied with Gehenna's turn of the century effort Murder. A half-decade brushed on by before they would once again venture into the studio, and the resultant sound and style of 2005's WW seem almost as if the band has taken a 180 back to their roots. Or rather, a step back towards what they were doing with Adimiron Black, sans the keyboards. I won't dispute that this was a good move, since the 90s thrashing/groove elements found on Murder were not exactly appealing, but sadly Gehenna would make few strides at all with their 5th album, and WW is a nearly complete void of distinguishable characteristics, as straight as black metal gets but with few of the ghastly, memorable aesthetics that catapult such albums into underground legends.

This is a competent album, by which I mean the execution of the instruments is as taut as one would expect from decade plus veterans of the genre, and they have ensured that it hits hard by hiring on Frost (Satyricon) to cover the studio drumming. Still, aside from the guy's callous and machine-like precision, there is nothing so incendiary or standout about his performance. The guy can blast and double bass the listener under the rug, but with such a mute palette of tried and derivative riffing, there's not much he might have done to improve the album's sense of sheer banality. Songs like "New Blood", "Grenade Prayer" and "Abattoir" engage in cyclic and circular riffing sequences that, while spinning a dissonant thread consistent with a decade or so of similar, Norwegian output, go nowhere and bounce of the listeners' skulls like Nerf projectiles.

There is some degree of variation in the actual songs, for instance the slower finale "Pallbearer" or "Flames of the Pit" at least offers a contrast to the thundering "Silence the Earth" or "Death to Them All", but the entire 37 minute experience seems all too flat and forgettable. The production creates a dark, forceful broth redolent of many Swedish and Norse records of the mid through late 90s, including Gehenna's older albums, but it's simply not enough to drag the songwriting across the finish line, and frankly, for all its flaws, Murder had more punch to its studio tenacity. That being said, WW is by no means an awful record, or even a particularly bad one. It straddles the average means of its genre and never seek to deviate, a guitar driven passage to nowhere, with fewer impressive riffs than one might count on the fingers of one hand, after having a few sliced off by the local organized crime syndicate. Hell, even the lyrics to tunes like "Death to Them All" are worse than even the previous few albums. WW might slightly edge out its direct predecessor in terms of overall finesse, but it's nothing that hasn't been performed hundreds of times, better.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

For such a respected Black Metal label, Moonfog Productions (started by Satyricon front man Satyr in 1992) certainly releases very few albums in comparison with other competing record labels. So far, after over a decade in the business, they have put out less than forty albums and have noticeably been losing some of their higher profile acts of late, such as Khold and the pioneering Darkthrone. Perhaps Satyr’s time has been devoted too much to Satyricon to allow him to efficiently oversee Moonfog’s everyday activities. Or perhaps the label’s staffers simply don’t feel the need to sign and publish every mediocre Black Metal album they come across, instead opting for the old fashioned yet admirable creed of quality over quantity. In the case of Norway’s Gehenna, whose “WW” album is their first in nearly five years and one of only two releases on Moonfog for 2005, this doctrine could most certainly be applied.

Gehenna shifted styles from their original symphonic Black Metal approach to a more Death Metal-orientated sound upon moving to Moonfog, releasing 1998’s “Adimiron Black” and 2000’s “Murder”, and in turn alienating many of their fans as well as vocalist Sanrabb who left the band when they essentially abandoned their Black Metal roots. Nonetheless, after a long period of apparent inactivity, the two parties reunited along with much in-demand session drummer Frost (Satyricon) to work on “WW”, an album which can only be described as an enormous return to the misanthropic sound of true Norwegian Black Metal. It also sees Gehenna embracing the genre with far more convincing effect than ever before.

Tracks like “Grenade Prayer”, “New Blood” and “Abattoir” bring to mind the speed and passion of early Immortal and Mayhem, with lightning quick blast beats and some of the most impressive vocal performances in the genre’s recent history. There are no ridiculous shrieks or childish screams to be found anywhere, but rather a continuously rough and decadent vocal recital, akin to Attila Csihar, whose distinctive voice raised the standard within the genre on Mayhem’s “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas”. However, the guitar tone is perhaps the most imposing, alluring and somehow unique aspect of “WW”, recalling the torturous sounds of early works by Burzum and Darkthrone and giving the album a further sense of darkness and depravity. This is often best illustrated on slower, more groove-based tracks such as “Flames Of The Pit” and the fantastic closer “Pallbearer”, as the drums slowly accompany the unearthly fuzz of the guitar distortion along with the morbid and frequently minimalist vocal performances.

While perhaps not a completely original work of art when compared to so many of the genre’s classic releases of the early and mid 90s, Gehenna’s “WW” stands out in a modern Black Metal scene all too comfortable to sound as accessible and current as possible. For those who miss the aura that seemed to surround the early Scandinavian Black Metal explosion, “WW” is a fitting homage and an excellent reminder that the ability to create such a mysterious and bleak atmosphere is not yet dead.

Originally written for http://www.blastwave.co.uk