Gorthaur’s Wrath were formed in Croatia in 1998. However, it took an eternity before the band was able to release its debut. This one was called Ritual IV and got spawned onto the Earth in early 2011 via Casket Music.
In mean time, only original member (vocalist / lyricist) Morbid remains from the original line-up. With session drummer Christian Bass (Obscure Affliction’s Kraven recently joined as permanent drummer), session keyboardist Christian Spelz, and (new) permanent members Ross Feratu (The Spook, My Black Omen) on guitars and Mara on bass, the band recorded this second full length at Woodshed Studios with V. Santura (Dark Fortress, Triptycon, The Shroud) as knob-wizard. A guest performance, i.e. cello on one song, was done by Jonas Baumgartl of Festering Saliva / Obscura / Black Horizons-fame, and both V. Santura and Sun Behr did some guest vocals.
War For Heaven has duration of fifty five (!) minutes and opens with an atmospheric intro (emotive, symphonic and electronic elements included), called The Great Creation. As from Übermensch on, the band shows its true, ugly face, i.e. melodic, atmospheric and modern Black-oriented Metal with a grandiose sound quality (unfortunately not of the ‘underground’ kind, but certainly not over-produced). War For Heaven brings a collection of rather predictable but acceptable songs, rhythmic and pretty variative in tempo and melody. However, there is a huge dose of ‘heard-it-before’ attitude, leaving me unsatisfied despite the nice intention behind. The songs are modestly varied ‘within’ every track (the tempo and melodic structures do differ a little), but as a matter of fact, most tracks might sounds way too alike. …same changes in speed, obvious song structures with evident epic grandeur and so on… The intentions aren’t bad, but the whole sounds way too safe, as if these guys did not want to take any risk again. Unfortunately it doesn’t work this way, even though there certainly is a specific (younger) audience that will adore this material. And let’s be honest: it is not that ridiculously effectuated. So I’ll give it a chance once again…