Abrahadabra

I don’t know what’s gotten into me to make me write a Dimmu Borgir review. I know this band, and I’m pretty aware of the hatred they got from selling out years ago or something like that. From what I can remember, their older works (“For all Tid” and “Stormblast”) were fairly simplistic black metal pieces that got the atmosphere right, despite being kind of boring on the long run.

I don’t feel particularly interested in reviewing their entire discography, so when you come to consider they’ve been writing pretty much the same shit (In a downward spiral) since “Spiritual Black Dimensions”, this review will work as a medium for my general opinion about this band as much as an analysis of “Abrahadabra”.

The thing is, I never actually understood this band’s point. I find them to be absolutely aimless and directionless, as if these six guys (Three, as of 2011) just couldn’t find a sense of cohesion or purpose to work with.

The exercise of listening to a post-Stormblast Dimmu Borgir album is, at least to me, something of a curious experiment of sorts, because every time these musicians seem to be at a loss about what to do next in the song (which happens quite frequently), they resort to over-the-top orchestrations, completely un-related riffwork or stomping repetition, repetition, repetition… A perfect example of this would be “In Death’s Embrace” from “Enthrone Darkness Triumphant”. What I’m trying to say is that Dimmu Borgir seem to be eternally trapped in some kind of “Hey, let’s act like we’re jamming forever instead of recording a previously thoroughly written and wrapped-up song” state, if you get what I mean.

However, things could’ve changed after some uninteresting shit went on, causing ICS Vortex and Mustis to depart from the band. As I witnessed the rabid discussions about the group’s future coming from pretty much everywhere (metal-related, that is), I couldn’t help but to feel a tad curious about the direction the band was heading after the split, so a chance was given to “Abrahadabra”, their funnily-titled new album.

When key members leave, it is expected for the band’s sound to change a bit, because, you know, there’s this sense of renewal, of gathering the rest of the group’s best ideas and really working them to come up with the best resul… But hey, who I am kidding? This is Dimmu Borgir, so we can all expect them to stick to their ever-worsening formula forever, so let’s get this going.

First, the lyrics are nothing special, as per usual. They go from pseudo-intellectual deep/metaphorical/whatever mysticism to good ol’ MTV satanic bullshit (“Constant retribution calling from the shadows of three consecutive sixes!”). They’re not utterly ridiculous like modern In Flames’ or your average cookie-cutter contemporary Metalcore, but are far from thought provoking as well. Doesn’t smell good, but at least it has the decency of not being a complete stinker.

Guitars don’t do a lot, as probably expected. Most riffs seem like an afterthought instead of an actual part of the songwriting and leads are kind of sparse. The only song with actual memorable guitars parts I can think of is “Renewal”. Abrasive-sounding power chords are everywhere and uninspired chugs also make an appearance.

Every once in a while, the orchestra backs out and we’re treated with a boring chugging riff or a sloppy tremolo part, as if to show us (or help us remember) this band still has two guitar players and they’re supposed to do SOMETHING. But once again, this is Dimmu Borgir, and they can’t seem to be assed to write a guitar-driven song anymore, so the orchestra quickly comes back and drowns the guitar with a fury akin to a white shark ascending to entirely swallow a small dolphin, as if to say “Ok, time’s up, this ocean is mine”. Silly metaphor aside, it gets irritating.

Clean vocals are present as not to alienate the people who used to tolerate this bunch of crap just because of Vortex, and this time, they’re sung by Therion’s Snowy Shaw, this Agnete chick I’ve never heard of before and fucking Garm, of all people. These three contribute effectively to the atmosphere of their respective songs, and even Agnete’s slightly abhorrent and chipmunk-ish vocals on ‘Gateways’ serve their purpose as attention-grabbing, at least.

Shagrath’s voice, however, is really bad, obnoxious and completely drenched in effects. For the most part he doesn’t even care to sing, going for the perpetually boring trick of the spoken-word dialogue. Man, this shit barely worked for Morbid Angel’s “God of Emptiness”, so you just can’t expect it to sound good in here, as the songwriting is way too schizophrenic to effectively match the song’s momentum with the “scary” vocals, in order to enhance the atmosphere. It’s a mess.

Oh, and speaking about messing up, this band should just give up the orchestrations, seriously. I know it will never happen, but every time I listen to this record I cant’ shake this feeling that the orchestrations are just way too good for these guys’ sound. Strong (Kudos for the excellent work of the Schola Cantorum choir), very well arranged (By composer Gaute Storaas, who previously worked with the group in “Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia”), but very distracting when played alongside generic, weak black metal.

Daray from Orion’s Vesania is on drumming duties, and he’s up to par with Dimmu’s former drummers. I find him less inventive than Nick Barker, but more focused than Hellhammer, so it is nice enough. Andy Sneap’s production job is as expected: clean, modern and sterile. So it suits the band’s recent sound like a glove.

As for individual songs, only one of them kept my attention for its whole run: Dimmu Borgir. Contrary to the other songs, this one has a direction, some fine (if simplistic) melodies and riffs going on and an interesting (if a tad silly) set of lyrics, reflecting the band’s stage of reformulation and unification after the former members’ departure. The orchestration and choir work are downright beautiful on this one too, fitting the arcane, warlike atmosphere perfectly. The black metal element is also present (by the song’s end), and the transition between it and the otherwise very melodic song sounds pretty natural and organic. If the album didn’t have this one, my score would go down to 3%, probably.

The first minute or so from ‘Renewal’ also kicks ass before turning into a borefest, and ‘Ritualist’ features some pretty nice ideas (the discrete acoustic guitar plucking right below the first verse onslaught and Shaw’s cool clean vocals), but it gets kind of ruined by a pedestrian chorus. “Gateways” bores you to sleep only to suddenly (and I mean SUDDENLY. This has got to be one of the most awkward transitions of the whole album) awake you with Agnete’s psycho vocals, then running around aimlessly like a cockroach being pursued by a stomping human foot until the last minute and a half, where the song finally seems to pick up (After ‘Forever more!’) and ends on a high note, with a cool tremolo part and an eerie Shagrath/Agnete duet that is interesting but not enough to save the rest of the song.

Overall, Dimmu Borgir lacks staying power/catchiness, cohesive songwriting and falls prey to the mistake of thinking that layers and layers of overblown orchestras and theatric antics will make up for it. A worthless idea for band that is as desperate for a direction as it is for money. Wait… scratch that. It’s probably just the money.

Highlights: “Dimmu Borgir”, “Ritualist” (Just the verses), and the ending segment of “Gateways” (Last minute or so).