French black metal will never be the same after long-standing but hermit-like Gorgon mastermind Christophe Chatelet issues his first full-length in 19 years. While his obscure discography — 2000’s The Spectral Voices was self-released — helps his mysterious cause, re-emerging on the Osmose Productions label, Gorgon now stand a hell of a chance of making waves off new album, The Veil of Darkness. Or, at the very least, garnering the kind of attention not given to ace debut, The Lady Rides a Black Horse, issued on the Dungeon Music label in 1995.
Decibel is psyched as Satan’s fiery sphincter to premiere Gorgon’s “Buried for Him,” the first track off The Veil of Darkness. “Buried for Him” isn’t an old-schooler’s attempt to take ownership of the avant-weird black metal meticulously calculated by the likes of Blut aus Nord or Deathspell Omega. Nor is Gorgon’s return to the fore a chance for Chatelet to dig up the bargain bin black metal of Vlad Tepes or Black Murder. Rather, Gorgon in its 2019 configuration — where Chatelet plays guitars, bass, and performs vocals — is more direct, more proficient, mooring its evil hooks into Sodom-like riffs, Dissection-like harmony, and God Dethroned-like catchiness. There’s nothing trendy about The Veil of Darkness, for it owes its malice to many origins. That it’s modern in sound, dynamic in production yet evil as hell makes it all the more agreeable to ears jaded (or learned).
On “Buried for Him,” Chatelet says: “A song to honor all the witches persecuted over the ages by men who considered themselves to be the only authentic representatives of God on earth. A scapegoat of a society dominated by the masculine power of the Church and the State, the witch is not dead, she simply hibernates…”
Wait for it… Gorgon are the dark horse of 2019. Here’s “Buried for Him!”
