Dimmu Borgir
Death Cult Armageddon

THE REVIEW

(review in honor of the brave Bassist who will be seeing them with Hypocrisy tonight)

Objective opinion: A decent album
Subjective opinion: What a mess!!!

It seems that Silenoz and Shagrath have forgotten that they composed absolute masterpieces like Stormblåst and Enthrone Darkness Triumphant, and since the departure of keyboardist Stien, from Spiritual Black Dimension onwards, in my opinion, Dimmu hasn't hit the mark.
Their move towards typically thrash sounds always suspended on a solid black base has made the six Norwegians lose that sort of gothic feeling that, in my opinion, contributed to their success. It's not fair to speak of a sell-out to a broader market than they had in the times of Stormblåst or E.D.T., because the new compositions have incredible violence and only in very few cases present that decadent and dreamy melody that had attracted them to a much wider audience.

Perhaps the Norwegian duo at the base of this true institution of symphonic black thinks they are making their fans happy, they think they are laying the foundation for new genres in this way, of opening up the elite world of black metal to new sounds, which has already happened with the industrial contaminations of many bands, The Kovenant above all, but they are doing none of this. They are simply coasting on the success achieved with Enthrone Darkness Triumphant losing their peculiarities over time, becoming a mere copy of themselves.

The fact that in this last Death Cult Armageddon (yet another "trinity" title) those symphonic influences have been partially recovered, also thanks to the use of a real orchestra for the recordings (see the thrilling intro of Eradication Instincts Defined) adds at least one point to the final evaluation of this CD, as well as the splendid falsetto of bassist Simen Hestæs, already with Borknagar.
Sure, we have more headbang-worthy songs like Vredesbyrd while in others we have the use of counter-times and odd times such that even the progressive definition can be attached to this CD, as well as Crossover, in the sense of going beyond genre boundaries and merging them into a single creature, violent and at the same time majestic for the orchestral arrangements but absolutely without bite... they almost seem like Dream Theatre.

An album that, rather than wanting to captivate the listener, transport them elsewhere, as only Stormblåst could do, focuses on impressing them with technique and compositional genius, both ends in themselves.