''Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam'' is the seventh studio album by Norwegian

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with t ...

band Gorgoroth. It was released in Europe on 19 June 2006 by

Regain Records Regain Records was a Swedish-based independent record label. The label predominantly released death metal and black metal albums. Regain Records was founded from what remained of the former label, Wrong Again Records, by Per Gyllenbäck in 1997 ...

and in the US on 25 July 2006 by

Candlelight Records Candlelight Records is a British record label based in England and founded by former Extreme Noise Terror bassist Lee Barrett, though it has had a division in the United States since January 2001. Candlelight Records specialises in black metal ...

. This was the only Gorgoroth album on which all of the lyrics and music were written by

Gaahl Kristian Eivind Espedal (born 7 August 1975), better known by his stage name Gaahl, is a Norwegian vocalist and painter. He is best known as the former frontman of Norwegian black metal band Gorgoroth. He is also the founder and lead vocalist of ...

and King ov Hell, and was the last to feature both members. It also marked the return of drummer

Frost Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor in an above-freezing atmosphere coming in contact with a solid surface whose temperature is below freezing, and resulting in a phase change from water vapor (a gas) ...

and was the last Gorgoroth album that he appeared on. It was nominated for Norway's 2006

Spellemann Spellemann is a folk music album by Norwegian singer Elisabeth Andreassen. It was released in Norway on 9 February 2009. On the album charts, it peaked at #6 in Norway and #45 in Sweden. Track listing #" Klinga mina klockor" #"Här är gudagott a ...

award in the "Metal" category. It is the first Gorgoroth album with no Norwegian lyrics. In November 2007, ''Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam'' was reissued with a slightly different cover and a DVD containing the "Carving a Giant" music video and another video documenting how the album was recorded.

Title and artwork

The album title, a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

term meaning "for the greater glory of

Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as Devil in Christianity, the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an non-physical entity, entity in the Abrahamic religions ...

", was conceived by Infernus inspired by his reading an article about the

Counter-Reformation The Counter-Reformation (), also called the Catholic Reformation () or the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. It began with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) a ...

, the

Society of Jesus , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

and

Ignatius de Loyola Ignatius of Loyola, S.J. (born Íñigo López de Oñaz y Loyola; eu, Ignazio Loiolakoa; es, Ignacio de Loyola; la, Ignatius de Loyola; – 31 July 1556), venerated as Saint Ignatius of Loyola, was a Spanish Catholic priest and theologian, ...

. It is technically incorrectly translated; the accurate translation of Latin for "The Greater Glory of Satan" would be "Ad Majorem Sathanae Gloriam". The cover artwork was taken from the 1850 painting ''

Dante and Virgil ''Dante and Virgil'' is an 1850 oil on canvas painting by the French academic painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau. It is on display at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. The painting depicts a scene from Dante's ''Divine Comedy'', which narrates a jour ...

'' by William-Adolphe Bouguereau.https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/asset-viewer/dante-and-virgile/-AF79SI4-gGMKA?hl=en&projectId=art-project Dante and Virgile

Track listing

Personnel

Gorgoroth

* Gorgoroth – mixing in

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

** Infernus –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

; mastering ** King ov Hell –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

– session

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Additional personnel

* Thomas Eberger – mastering

Engineering

* Geir Luedy – drums at Lydriket Studio, Bergen; January 2005 * Svein Solberg – guitar & bass at Steel Production Studio, Spydeberg; May 2005 * Herbrand Larsen – vocals and mixing at Earshot Studio, Bergen; March 2006

References

{{Authority control Gorgoroth albums 2006 albums