Eonian

It's hard to gauge any response to a band like Dimmu Borgir: they're polarizing, they inspire either love or hate. For some reason, when a band reaches this level--as they did back in 2003--the paradox comes true: "they're shitty because they changed" or "they're shitty because it's the same shit." Either way, this band is fucked. Hence this review is fucked, but I'll pull no punches. I'll say it now: this album is their best.

I am not a hardcore Dimmu Borgir fan. I cherry-pick songs here and there. To me, the best overall release was Death Cult Armageddon, but they have better songs out there, if you look--"Mourning Palace"; Dimmu Borgir"; "Kings of the Carnival Creation"--but overall, most albums are spotty. In fact, I like the bands they're associated with much more--The Kovenant, Old Man's Child, etc. That being said, I did not have high hopes for this. I was not one who waited 8 years with baited breath.

But I should have, because this album fucking kills. "Aetheric" and "Empyrean Phoenix" have some of the best Dimmu riffs ever, and I mean that. Everything is still the same: the symphonic elements, the chorus and choirs, Shagrath's growls. Everything is as it should be, but better. Mustiis is not needed. I thought he would be, but he isn't missed. Songs like "Archaic Correspondence" and "I Am Sovereign" change it up a bit, introducing slight folk elements and a syncopated, carnivalesque atmosphere. Galder's guitars have never been better, harking back to the days of "Black Seeds on Virgin Soil." He's never been better: his riffs are awe-inspiring, and anyone who says he is shit is either a.) not in a band or b.) in a band that fucking sucks. You wish you could write riffs like this, and you know it.

Now imagine Sopor Aeternus and Emperor met in a darkened conventicle, and plagued the world with diseased sound. You would be getting closer. Imagine death rites, black funeral flags, gothic mistresses in black mystique make-up, imagine plummeting to earth in a death spiral, bound for glory as the world rushes by and sings to you in unison. This is Eonian. This is new Dimmu Borgir.

"Council of Wolves and Snakes" is, lyrically, one of the best. Here Shagrath sings of the inner desires and fears of man and mankind as whole; he addresses not you or me, but the dark you or me, the one we hide, like pamphleteers of a black time. He makes you think, if you care to think, and he makes you sing inside. My favorite track from this is easily Alpha Aeon Omega: the choirs here are astounding, some that eclipse even anything from the Puritanical-era Dimmu. Each track feels like a new song, nothing runs into or overlaps like some of their other albums--"For All Tid"; Stormblast"--and each one contains a small masterpiece. Some are quite long, too, clocking in at 7 or 8 minutes. I would have given this album 100% had they chosen a different opening track; to me, it was not the strongest on the album, and I would have appreciated a better one. Also, their videos suck, but that really doesn't matter here.

There's nothing broken here, folks, but if you hated Dimmu before, you'll still hate them. Which is okay with me...perhaps Hot Topic has the new Lamb of God. Perhaps your friends will think of you highly, knowing you too can shit on anything well known, because you will never be well known, or well-liked for that matter. To quote Nietzsche: "And where men make sacrifices and serve and cast amorous glances, there too is the will to be master. Along stealthy paths the weaker steals into the castle and into the heart of the more powerful--and there steals power."

It's very simple: this is their best album. This is a driving force, sharpened down to the finest of points, honed to synthetic, scintillating brilliance. This is a head-smash for the thinkers, for the lucifugal, for the underworld inside us all.