Gateways

First a description of the song, then the impression that it made on me.

The song begins with a brief symphonic intro, and then kicks in with a typical Dimmu style riff, drums kicking and choirs "Ahh"ing. The following riff is more stop and start guitar work with the symphony filling in the cracks and Shagrath utilizing a lower vocal range, almost talking that leads into yelling at the end of each lyric. The section after that reminds me of a God of War soundtrack gone wrong. The choir itself is good, but the part that they're singing over doesn't quite fit without seeming cheesy. Then, out of nowhere, there's a clean female vocal that's both unexpected and pleasantly surprising. At first it doesn't fit, but it eventually becomes very fitting. A melodic harmonized guitar lead - something Dimmu doesn't really utilized very often - separates the clean verses. After the clean vocals there's a dialogue from Shagrath over choirs that are used in a much more intelligent way than before, and fit with the epic guitars and drums that remind me that chugging can still be good under the right circumstances. There's a verse using the symphony and ending vocals that sound like Swans, no, really, Swans. In any case, it's followed up by actual black metal riffage that sounds brilliantly depressing and somber while still feeling epic. It all leads up to the most epic part of the song. More start stop riffage over Shagrath dialogue trading off with clean female vocals as the symphony and choirs constantly build up with emotion, and at the very climax of it all, guitars and drums ring out to signify that it's all over.

Aside from the God of War-esque section, this song reinstalled my hope for Dimmu. When Mustis and Vortex were no longer a part of the band I wasn't sure if they would be able to make music the same way without drastically changing their sound for the worse, and to my surprise, the sound was drastically changed for the better while still holding on to their Dimmu sound. I have a feeling that they’re going to heavily rely on the symphony and choir arrangements more than before, but as long as it sounds good in the end without being the same idea recycled over and over again, then no complaints here.

The decision to make this song the single release is intelligent to me because the end of the song really left me wanting to hear more from the new album. I honestly think that if all of the songs have the same feel to them that this could be just as good, if not a little bit better than Progenies, but definitely better that In Sorte and Puritanical. Let's hope that this isn't just an anomaly with Abrahadabra and Dimmu can actually back up all of the praise that they've been giving themselves.

Until then - well done, Dimmu Borgir.