Interdimensional Summit

I enjoyed Death Cult Armageddon. I cannot say the same for In Sorte Diaboli and Abrahadabra, but those two albums sure beat the crap out of this single. Let’s get this over with.

We know Dimmu Borgir has been combining black metal with symphonic elements for a long time, but it’s also true that the black metal elements have been getting less and less present, so much that Dimmu Borgir cannot even be considered actual black metal anymore. The guitars are beyond uninspired and are in many places hard to hear due to the pompous and ill-fitting orchestration. The drums can at least be heard at all times, but they do nothing of substance. There’s nothing to say about the bass except that it cannot be heard.

What can I say about Shagrath’s vocals that hasn’t been said already? Well, he sounds like he’s been thinking to himself ‘I’m getting too old for this shit’ after getting up too early. Seriously, whereas he used to sound ferocious, now he sounds bored and maybe grumpy, but certainly not scary. Well, at least he’s not Tommy Wiseau of black metal yet; now THAT would have me worried. As it stands now, all in all, I’m not impressed in the slightest. On top of that, the pointless choir tends to cover his vocals; in fact, there are times when I cannot hear Shagrath at all due to the choir.

There is one more track on this EP (but why they called this an EP is something I fail to get), a live rendition of Puritania. Sure, it’s better than the title track, but is ultimately pointless, nothing but filler. A filler that’s not half-baked, but still filler. Back to the naming issue, two songs do not make an EP, they make a single. Dream Theater may be able to get away with making a two-track EP (theoretically speaking, of course), but I cannot say the same for Dimmu Borgir.

What really annoys me, though, is the fact that Interdimensional Summit, or the idea for it, was recorded years ago. So much time and Dimmu Borgir didn’t do anything worthwhile with it?! Anything?! How lazy can you get?! In fact, I’ll deliberately take this line out of whatever little hazy context there is:

The more you see
The less it makes sense

Yeah, the more I gave this song a listen, and the more I dug into the fact that this was conceived years ago, the less sense it makes!

Interdimensional Summit is like a dump you took behind a bush when you were drunk and then forgot about, but later stumbled upon it again even more drunk and come up with a ‘bright’ idea to use that shit for something. At least I’d like to pretend that’s the case. If the rest of the upcoming album is going to be anything like this, then I’m not looking forward to it. Luckily, there are many other black metal albums worth a listen.