GHOLGOTH were founded in late 1998 by Zoltan Molnar (vocals), Zsolt Temesváry (bass) and guitarist Attila Torday (guitars). Endre Vigh (drums) and second guitarist Tibor Kovacs (both belonging to DIAFRAGAMA) joined the ritual and released the ’00 demo Visional Inertia. The current line-up has Laszlo Kliment replacing Attila the Hun (sorry, couldn’t help myself).
Having received a promo package from the label (Ordealis Records), it becomes inevitable to establish comparison between some of the releases – and if I was severely disappointed with MÜTIILATION, the same does not apply with Hungarian GHOLGOTH’s Somnus Mortis Imago. Actually, I consider GHOLGOTH as a vast improvement over the stagnant BM scene. This is purely unadulterated evil Black Metal – particularly evident in Goath (whose title provided me with some moments of etymological introspection). Absurdum is also representative of GHOLGOTH’s hybrid musical origin.
So, we are talking about evil BM here – but there are also elements of Death and Thrash, which makes a perfect combination. Fast BM with an energetic drummer and well played songs – and that is a (rare) fact. There is perhaps a slight bit of catchiness in demand for the songs to be fully distinguishable and have a dimension of their own. I loved the vocals, though. The sound is also very uncharacteristic of ‘raw’ stuff (well, GHOLGOTH is not raw anyway): though I would not call it perfect, there is a lot of power and the bass drums are ever working (Somnus Mortis Imago was recoded at BatSound Studios).
The two highlights of the album are Dead Star and the cover, where a ‘man-skull’ in a hood leads a legion of desolate, demotivated men devoid of self-will into a hellish gate. My rudiments of Latin point at an album titled Image of the Sleep of Death – is the cover a possible illustration?
I would not say GHOLGOTH are a breeze of fresh air or very innovative – then again, not always is innovation a virtue (even for truly evil eyes). This is highly recommendable nevertheless. Fans of old MAYHEM or GORGOROTH might find GHOLGOTH appealing.
Myspace Gholgoth
Gholgoth – Absurdum (live in Debrecen)
