Gottlos

Gottlos - Infernal Pandemonia
Eclipse Productions, 2004
Genre: Black Metal

1. Glorious Conquest
2. Mystis
3. A Nocturnal Monologue
4. Kytheria (Astral in the Midnight)
5. The Witches of Symposium
6. Wrath of Katachthonium
7. Mesíášův Konec (Maniac Butcher cover)








Gottlos is another project somewhat related to Maniac Butcher that has probably been rather lost to the ages of time. I bought this CD around when it was first released and I think I listened to it once or twice back then and now we're in 2018 seeing if this holds up to the test of time. The music is composed by Greek musician Skylepthis and Barbarud Hrom from Maniac Butcher provided the vocal accompaniment.

Being related to Maniac Butcher I expect some degree of rawness and that's pretty much what we get with the first Gottlos release. The music isn't too bad, however, it is quite monotonous, which is probably the intention. Each songs has, perhaps, two to three riffs, if that. "Mystis" feels like it is only a single riff played for a few minutes. The major problem here is that while other bands like Gorgoroth and Horna have done a decent job with this approach Gottlos doesn't succeed in the same fashion. The riffing mostly feels okay with a few gems shining through here and there, such as the opening to "A Nocturnal Monologue" and there's even another riff in there that sounds quite good. The major problem and reason this winds up sounding so mind-numbing compared to other bands is there are no drum fills, except for one during the middle of "A Nocturnal Monologue". Skyleptis barely gives treatment to the rest of the drum set beyond snare, kick, and hi-hat. The beats rarely vary beyond a blast beat. The moments that do vary really stand out in a big way, because it's so weird amidst such over simplicity. The album closes with a Maniac Butcher cover and its a stark contrast because there are drum fills... so it's not that Skylepthis can't do them, he's choosing not to, which just make the overall release a bit more questionable in its drum arrangements. In fact, it almost seems like Skylepthis is learning drums as he is making this album, because the variation and complexity of the drum beats increases as the album progresses.

In the end, I'm not sure this was supposed to have more releases, but this wound up being a Black Metal one-off. While some of the riffing was enjoyable, the mind-numbing drum performance kind of killed the release for me. It really doesn't hold up well over time and I can't remember if I liked it a lot when it was first released. I can see why I forgot about the album over the years, because it didn't over enough memorable music for me to return to over and over. If you like incredibly simplistic Black Metal then you might find the lack of arrangements to be a feature.