In this album we find the guys of Gorgoroth experimenting quite a bit, adding industrial touches to their premium brand of Black Metal. The production is crystal-clear, adding a modern sound to their music, contrary to their previous efforts which have a more raw production; as for the musicianship; it is that expected from the high quality band that Gorgoroth is.

The opening track, Incipit Satan, is a blistering, ultra-aggressive track in the common Gorgoroth way of doing Black Metal (except for the brief electro-industrial interlude), featuring Infernus’ trademark riffing and Gaahl’s mad vocals as well as some nice clean ones at the end; one of the best songs in the album definitely. The next track, A World to Win, is a mid-tempo song with a march feeling to it, nothing special. The following track, Litani Til Satan, is a terribly boring slow paced song, it has nothing special, just a monotonous riff and Gaahl giving what seems to be a lightly sung speech about I don’t know what, skip button; now, the next track is a truly amazing Black Metal song, one of my all-time favorites, Unchain My Heart!!!; this one is excellent in every aspect; some of the best riffs in Gorgoroth’s history, excellent drumming courtesy of Sersjant Erichsen, and some really grim and aggressive vocals make of this track one of Gorgoroth’s best to date.

In the next track, An Excerpt of X, we find hypnotic riffing, as well as some tremolo riffing half-way through the song, and a borrowed riff from Burzum, probably done as a tribute to the band; but that doesn’t save it from being one of the weak tracks in the album; boring, boring, boring. Following is Ein Eim Av Blod Og Helvetesild, which follows more the vein of Incipit Satan, with a really great chaotic song structure as well as some more excellent riffing. The reason the band didn't include more of this style of tracks in the album, instead of some lame industrial interludes is beyond my comprehension. After that we receive an extremely boring track (again!!!), Will to Power, which is mainly composed by some industrial sampling and electronics. The final track of the album arrives and it’s quite a surprise; When Loves Rages Wild in my Heart is a mid-paced track featuring clean vocals delivered by a guest vocalist all throughout the song, half-way through the song there’s another industrial interlude, but the length of this one makes it quite annoying unlike the one in Incipit Satan which is nicely done.

Incipit Satan shows that Gorgoroth aren’t afraid of experimenting with their sound, but I’m not quite sure if they knew what they were doing, or if the results came out as expected by them, which is a shame, because the album features some excellent songs but the overall quality of the album is severely affected by the weak and boring ones. If only the album had more substance and less crappy industrial interludes or atmospheric tracks, or whatever you’d like to call those songs, it would have been a great release. Don’t get me wrong, I love Gorgoroth, but an album can’t be quoted high, just because it has three excellent tracks, when the rest is average or below average; the quote is for the overall album. So do yourself a favor and get a copy of Under the Sign of Hell or their latest effort, Twilight of the Idols (In Conspiracy with Satan); there you'll really see what Gorgoroth is capable of doing.