Gorgoroth was founded in 1992 by guitarist Infernus after making a pact with the devil. In 1993, the band released their first demo, entitled A Sorcery Written in Blood. On January 7, 1994, Firda, the major newspaper in the county of Sogn og Fjordane where the band originated from, ran a cover story on the demo, with the headline "Local music with Satanic symbolism". According to the article, the release of the demo and flyers with Satanic symbols led to "concerned parents contacting the Sheriff's Office in Fjaler". After the demo was released, Gorgoroth signed a record deal with Embassy Productions and started work on their debut full-length Pentagram. When bassist Kjettar left the band in 1993, Samoth of Emperor joined Gorgoroth as their new bassist, and participated in the recording of the album. After Pentagram was completed and released in 1994, drummer Goat left the band and was replaced by Frost from Satyricon. The band performed their first concert at Lusa Lottes Pøbb in Oslo, Norway, on May 3, 1994, at a four-day Black Metal Nights festival with bands such as Dark Funeral (who also made their live debut), Dissection, Enslaved, Marduk (who played their first gig abroad), Gehenna and Hades Almighty.
This was followed by gigs with Enslaved in Bergen (in June and September) and in Haugesund (in November), and the band performed their first gig abroad in Annaberg-Buchholz in Germany on December 10, 1994. The same year, the band commenced the recording of Antichrist (originally titled Død), their second full-length album. The group is currently signed to Regain Records and have released eight full-length studio albums. A re-recording of their third album, Under the Sign of Hell, was released in 2011, and a new full-length album has been in the works since late 2009.
