Dissection
Starless Aeon

'Reinkaos' was released last year, shortly before the suicide of leader Jon Nodtveidt. Nothing random about it. The album was deliberately conceived as the concluding chapter of Dissection's discography. It was meant to be the artistic summation of what had matured in the Swede's mind during his 11 years of incarceration.

Compared to the previous 'Storm Of The Light's Bane', almost everything has changed: the promotional campaign, now enormous, the line-up, now a trio, and especially the stylistic formula. This is the sore point, which drove thousands of fans away from the Swedish band. Dissection now plays a very melodic Death Metal, similar to that founded right at home in Gothenburg (New Wave of Swedish Death Metal): although the sound in the past was influenced by death elements (like fellow Swedes Necrophobic), the result is markedly different, as the group has now lost all references to black metal, completely renounced by Nodtveidt, both musically and culturally.

"Starless Aeon" is the leading single. And already the decision to promote the album with a single clearly shows the shift to more accessible territories. Honestly, I don't believe there was any economic intent (at least on the part of the band) behind this move, as it had long been planned to take the step that would take the Swede away from life. Thematically, the analysis of the lyrics and the imagery behind them clearly indicates the change; from the long poetic texts of the black metal period, majestic and romantic in their naivety, it has shifted to shorter, more "philosophical" compositions that betray the leader's adherence to the gnostic-satanist movement of the Misanthropic Luciferian Order.

After this long premise, it's good to move on to the actual description of the disc. Dissection's offering has sadly declined, losing all those elements that characterized the genius of a group outside the box: the Melodic Death they offer today is banal and trivial, the result of a sharp and decisive alignment with the canons of the mainstream scene. "Starless Aeon" (perhaps the best song on Reinkaos, along with "Beyond The Horizon") is the classic piece that could appear on MTV's Headbangers Ball, with its very catchy refrain, clean sounds, the voice that scratches without running the risk of being indigestible to anyone. As with Satyricon, the band's opening to more accessible shores has entailed a distortion of the sound, further penalized by increasingly monotonous songwriting tied to song structure. The lack of creative freshness in Reinkaos (in my opinion **/*****) manifests in the constant wait by the ear for those rare moments when a certain originality materializes, among solos, acoustic breaks, and more intimate moments. The very fact that after a while the melodic devices appear predictable heavily marks a proposal like that of Dissection. The single is completed by an instrumental version of the track (mere filler given the quality of the music, at least enlivened by the presence of vocals) and another track from the album, "Xeper-I-Set", as dull and opaque as the previous one. The CD closes with the video of "Starless Aeon": even in this case, the sense of incompleteness remains that characterizes the group's music; static and monotonous shots of the three members, semi-shrouded in darkness (Moreover, no offense, the three certainly don't shine for charisma…).

A final note on the thematic universe: in my opinion, it couldn't have ended worse. The studies conducted in prison by Nodtveidt have indelibly marked his pen, as barren as ever. The grandiose statements of the eve (among secret alchemies, astral planes, gnosis, and misanthropy) have found a home in the verses of the songs, relegating the conceptual side of the group into the shadows (hardly assimilable, unless you are part of the MLO). From this reality arises a laughable text like "Starless Aeon":

Death - wisdom of the abyss is the key to the broken star

Eleven Angles pathways of chaos will bring fourth our most wrathful god

Qliphotic force from beyond will usurp the tree of cosmic lies

Dies irae, dies illa solvet cosmos in favilla

Vocamus te Aeshma-Diva