Gateways

Within the first few seconds of listening to "Gateways," it's already apparent that Dimmu Borgir is sticking to the same formula that they've used for previous albums' singles; namely Serpentine Offering and Progenies of the Great Apocalypse. This formula is basically a grandiloquent orchestral piece - quite catchy and decently done - overtop double bass drums and a boring guitar line composed of maybe two chords repeated over and over. This part isn't surprising but it still sounds okay.

The vocals are primarily what you would expect from Shagrath, with the exception of the terrible chipmunk vocals that burst in immediately after the first verse. Although as bad as they are, they are kinda somewhat forgivable after a few listens. Shagrath doesn't quite do his robot voice, as I've noticed a few to accuse him of. He does try to do some pretty deep and darker sounding growls, but no robot shit. It even sounds as though he puts in a few words of clean singing at random points.

The redeeming part of this song is from about 3:50 on. It actually turns pretty epic. The chipmunk vocalist does some real singing that actually sounds good and Shagrath goes back to his growling as opposed to his regular froggy voice. The beat and guitars slow down and get really heavy while the orchestra plays a sorrowful and sad piece. If the rest of the upcoming album is anything similar to this part of the song, then I really cant wait. I've found Dimmu to always be barely mediocre, but the ending to the song gave me a little hope for whats in store for Abrahadabra.

Long story short: If you are expecting a new sound from these guys...then you will be barely barely satisfied. By itself the song is overall mediocre at best.