Gateways

Confusion and anger are the only 2 words to describe my feeling the first time I heard this lame excuse for art. And I am doing this band a big favor by even giving them enough credit by calling this trash of a song art.

I'm letting it loose - no holds barred on Dimmu Borgir for this album. I was the guy who had contempt prior to investigation for this band due to the amount of mall-core kids wearing their shirts when I'd go see shows. There would be a group of kids with fishnet sleeves donning Marilyn Manson, Slipknot and Dimmu Borgir shirts so I lumped them in with the other mindless drone-following shit. But one day decided to give them more of a chance and gave "Enthrone Darkness Triumphant" a listen and was sold. That album was and still is a masterpiece for many reasons - an instant extreme metal classic. I then acquired a few other albums in their discography and had no real complaints. One thing I determined was that this band is not and never was black metal after "For All Tid". Most of the stuff was very good or tolerable, but not black metal like so many say they are. Those are the same people who think Cradle of Filth is black metal.

This review could be the simplest I've done because it is only based on one song, but there is more than just the one song that needs to be talked about. Metal has paradoxes attached to it. And in Dimmu Borgir's case their falsities and bullshit has now shown itself in the most vile of ways. The theatrics and monetary part of the business have now seemed to become more important to the remaining members of this band than the actual music and art(There's that word again). Unfortunately for them, I have a poseur detecting radar that is still blaring after listening to this cradle of filth knock-off of a song/single. Why do I say it is such a song?

Shagrath. Man, can you make it any more obvious that you want to sound like Dani Filth?! Well, it is a poor attempt to sound like an already horrible vocalist. The range is obviously manipulated by modern technology. He attempts that signature shrill Dani Filth high pitch scream/squeal thing but ends up sounding like what I would consider a muskrat being tortured. He then goes on the other extreme and employs that low-pitch groan like on numerous tracks from "In Sorte Diaboli". A couple little spoken word parts followed by what can be considered a guitar lead. But it's pretty pathetic. And fake - synthetic.

There are snyths and keyboards and what even sounds like sampling present in this song. More electronic orchestral sounding(like Cradle of Filth) than the usual Dimmu symphonic tactics. That brings me to wonder what happened to Mustis and why was he kicked out. Like someone else I know said, "he probably wasn't playing ball". That's right, post listening to this, he's better off elsewhere anyways. Hail Mustis!

The guitar work is so obscured by the already mentioned dull electronic aspect of this album that it really isn't worth talking about. There are a few palm-muted little riffs throughout that are meant to be catchy but come up short. There are sell out forms of catchy and good pure metal grooves, these "riffs" have sellout all over them. Galder is an official member but it would be hard to believe that he had anything to do with the writing of this childish bullshit due to his high skill level of playing. Fuck, I can't believe he is even associated with this.

The drums are the best part of this song but it's nothing new. Blast beat and crash ride, blast beat. I mean, if it weren't for the drums, I would have given this song a 0%. Whoever is drumming on this, is dominating the kit with decent authority. And this band has had more drummers come through than johns at a whorehouse.

I really have tried to give Dimmu the benefit of the doubt on more than one occasion after first condemning them unfairly. I did see this coming but guess I lied to myself. But now I am starting to hate them again, and for good reason. They have sold out. And I don't throw the "selling out" term around loosely. What I mean by selling out is that they have almost fully compromised their style under the name Dimmu Borgir. Should have changed their name. It's just too obvious. This is the kind of selling out that a band does that you see in movies. Yes, officially Dimmu Borgir have sold out. And to put the icing on the cake of "washed up", they do it with a fucking single.

R.I.P. Dimmu Borgir