Gorgoroth name dispute

The Gorgoroth name dispute refers to a legal dispute between musicians from Norwegian black metal band Gorgoroth over who had ownership of the band's name, which was derived from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. The parties to the dispute were band founder Infernus (Roger Tiegs) and members Gaahl (Kristian Espedal) and King ov Hell (Tom Cato Visnes). It began in October 2007, when it was announced that Gaahl and King had decided to part ways with Infernus, although the former two claimed to have "fired" the latter. The dispute was concluded in March 2009 when a court verdict recognising Infernus as the legitimate user of the name was announced, and the outcome of the dispute also established a precedent in Norway for subsequent similar disputes.

Gorgoroth was formed in 1992 by guitarist Infernus. Between 1993 and 1998, the band released one demo - A Sorcery Written in Blood (1993), three studio albums - Pentagram (1994), Antichrist (1996) and Under the Sign of Hell (1997), and one EP - The Last Tormentor (1996). Infernus wrote much of the material on Pentagram and the entirety of Antichrist and Under the Sign of Hell, and he performed the bass lines on the latter two albums. This period saw several line-up changes - as would happen throughout the band's history - as well as extensive live performances which included two European tours. The band was signed to the major German heavy metal record label Nuclear Blast after being approached by them on their headlining European tour in 1997. This would be crucial for Gorgoroth to earn the attention of a wider audience through Nuclear Blast's distribution facilities in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

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