Abrahadabra

Honestly, I never thought I'd live to see this day. The day when Dimmu Borgir would release an album that would be worse than both Death Cult Armageddon and In Sorte Diaboli combined. And honestly, I had much more expectations off this album! But in the end I fell disappointed off my chair as the album ended. Everything I hoped that Dimmu would return to now that Vortex and Mustis were gone had been just an illusion. This album was no Enthrone Darkness Triumphant, it was far from it. It was like a pathetic attempt to make another Death Cult Armageddon.

First of all, the album begins with Xibir, a classical music intro with choirs, strings and horns. Everything is nice until Born Treacherous kicks in. We get some simplistic guitar riffs and all the elements that I've despised from new Dimmu: cheesy and boring symphonic riffs, useless speed and heaviness, weak vocals. And speaking of vocals, Shagrath has now proven that his voice is totally worn off. Whenever he tries to shriek or even growl, he fails epically at both. And by the way, just for your information: both choir of how many people you want and Snowy Shaw will not be able to replace the amazing work that Vortex did! EVER! With this being said, let's move on to the next song.

The 3rd track of this album, Gateways, is actually one of the greater songs. It features some great classical symphonic strings, amazing female vocals and some quite good guitar solos. This song is sure to be a fan favorite, as its epicness is undescribable. The duet between Shagrath and Agnete at the end of this song was the proof that the band can still be saved... if they morph into an extreme metal version of Nightwish. Because as I've mentioned in my review of Death Cult Armageddon, Dimmu should've left the whole symphonic metal thing for a band which knows how to handle it, like Nightwish.

Chess with the Abyss had some decent choirs and strings here and there, but the rest was just bland. Dimmu Borgir, however, was the only other song off this album that managed to strike some particular chords for me. Its beautiful choirs, epic orchestration and bad ass guitar solos are what made it worthy of both a music video and becoming one of the few top tracks off this release.

Sadly, after this song, the only things that are even worth MENTIONING from this album are Snowy Shaw's chanting on Ritualist and Endings and Continuations, and some of the orchestration and choir work from the final track. The rest of the album... was bland and boring just like its predecessors: In Sorte Diaboli and Death Cult Armageddon. With this fast regress of Dimmu Borgir in quality of song writing, I fear that the future of this once amazing black metal band will be dark... and not at all dark in the metal way...

Favorite tracks: Gateways, Dimmu Borgir