Dissection
The Somberlain

THE REVIEW

In the era of the full splendor of the entire Nordic Black/Death scene, where the cacophony and malevolence emitted by bands belonging to that world were prioritized over any desire to refine their musical technique, Dissection composed an album that proved to be the right compromise: the icy atmosphere of the most blasphemous black metal combined with an unusual sophistication in melodies and compositions, as well as a technique of decidedly higher caliber than the average.

The charismatic frontman Jon Nodtveidt brings to life a record that lays the foundations for a new conception of the genre to which it claims to belong, as happens with all those groups possessing a remarkable emerging personality from their earliest works. In short, this "The Somberlain" shows us a young band and, to be fair, still a bit green, but at the same time determined and with a clear idea of the result they want to achieve. As an emblem of the album itself, the opener "Black Horizons" can be taken as an example, over eight minutes of poetry and malice broken in the middle by a sudden, unexpected acoustic break: already one immediately notices how well the structure of the piece in question has been crafted, but what strikes the most is the extraordinary evocative power of each single passage and the pathos of Nodtveidt's voice, with that well-chosen, albeit eerie distant echo effect.

The quality of the entire work is consistently high, and the alternation of fast rhythms with more paced ones (see the title track) definitely keeps boredom at bay, usually a common denominator for albums of this genre. This to demonstrate the indisputable compositional ability of a band that a few years later would enter the legend, after having churned out that masterpiece called "Storm Of The Light's Bane". The best, as often happens, was yet to come, even though unfortunately it would not go further, but that is another story...

Impossible to remain indifferent to this album (the band's first full-length), a true must for all adherents of the black flame, a piece of malevolence from a period when black metal was more alive and real than ever, when bands like Mayhem, Marduk, Emperor, or Dissection themselves truly believed in what they were doing, when records were carriers of the most sincere and pure feelings, and the wind from the desolate northern lands seemed to gently rise to the sound of every single note.