Eonian

I've always been optimistic about Dimmu Borgir, keeping them on my radar as more releases come out despite being let down over and over by the last few releases. But in hindsight, I wish they stopped at the Stormblast re-release back in 2005. Even though I wasn't a big fan of that album and the ones following it, it would've been a nice clean break and probably would've made a better legacy for them. Ever since that album, the controversial band has dug themselves further into a hole, avoiding what has appealed to their fanbase since the earlier days and anything attempt to recreate it comes across as inauthentic. What made Dimmu Borgir great in the past was creating an atmosphere that was backed by richness of melodies and other components (especially keyboards and later keyboards) that all integrated well with each other. A lot of it was cheesy, sure, but the execution made it all feel genuine and worth remembering.

Eonian is an album that is a step up from the previous work, Abrahadabra, but it's still capturing the same issues the last few albums had while adding some more to the mix. The most obvious new feature is the integration of a choir, but I'd hardly call it integrated. Sure, they aren't arbitrarily picking two songs to have the talented ICS Vortex sing on like in Death Cult Armageddon and In Sorte Diaboli to fill some quota, but now it seems like they have a quota to use this choir in every track. It often conflicts with the tone of some of the tracks and ruins the overall mood. It's like a new toy that the band got their hands on and they feel obligated to show it off wherever they can.

The album is overproduced, mostly lacks an atmosphere, and many of the musical components are very disjointed, much like its predecessor, but I emphasize the last point a lot more to Eonian because of the choir. The impact is that you get a small list of decent tracks that you only want to listen to for certain segments. I was pretty hooked when "The Unveling" started. It had this aggressive, industrial vibe with roaring guitars, but the choir chiming in by the first minute was not completely necessary. Things take a nosedive with "Interdimensional Summit", where the choirs turn this pop metal track into a full blown singalong. On the other hand, "Council of Wolves and Snakes" starts off pretty unique and almost conveys a ritualistic atmosphere that is both mysterious and foreboding. It is then backed by some aggressive riffs that come out nowhere but then slows down to a more tranquil pace. It all sounds pretty nice and outside of Dimmu Borgir's standard playbook, but then the choirs come in and things sound terrible and really disjointed.

But the choir is not all bad. On "I am Sovereign", the last half of the track features melodic riffs with solemn sounding choirs. It's a nice mix that is reminiscent of pre 2005 Dimmu Borgir. But I have to the skip the first half of the song, which sounds completely different from the latter half and features an awkward pirate gig, as a previous reviewer put it so perfectly. "Alpha Aeon Omega" is probably the most consistent track, but at this point, I'm really stretching to find something as good as the previous albums. The last track is okay, but ultimately reminds me of a poor man's "Perfection or Vanity".

The overall final product shows a band that doesn't really know where they're going, so they're trying to put in a new element (the choir) while doing so many different things under the sun to appeal to as many people as possible. The result is a lackluster list of decent tracks that most of them have some part worth skipping anyway. As a long time Dimmu Borgir fan, I won't find any strong tracks like "Vredesbyrd", "Mourning Palace", "Kings of Carnival Creation", and "The Insight the Catharsis" here, but I will say the best parts of Eonian generally beat the best parts of Abrahadabra (at least i'll remember Eonian a bit better) and its worst parts are generally not as bad as Abrahadabra's worst parts. Still, to wait 8 years for this and still feel underwhelmed, I can't help but hope Dimmu Borgir throws in the towel soon. For those that have followed them for at least 15 years, I think we can all agree that they've had a pretty strong discography, but if they quit now, they can keep their legacy in better shape.