De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas

This album is praised with a reason. Every second of this perfection confirms its status of being one of the most influential and essential black metal albums ever. There is not a single thing that is bad about this album, whether we're discussing atmosphere, vocals, riffs or song structure.

First of all, the atmosphere. Dark. Evil. Blasphemous. For me it was like being in another dimension where nothing but this brilliant masterpiece exists. Unlike many black metal albums (which are unfortunately becoming generic and just rip-offs of one another), De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas keeps the listener focused from the beginning to the end. It's astonishingly hypnotic because you can clearly hear hatred and evilness intertwined with the music. The lyrics, whose mysterious notes and darkness depict Dead's soul, are also an important component of the general impression.

Most people complain about Attila's vocal style, and I really don't see a reason for that. His vocals fit this album perfectly, mostly because of the parts with operatic singing (such as in the songs Life Eternal and De Mysteriiis Dom Sathanas) that are irreplaceable with ordinary black metal shrieks.

Furthermore, we should all hail Euronymous for the riffs he made. Not only do they sound inspired, diabolical and create a nocturnal, lurid ambience, they also smoothly connect with each other, giving a continual flow to the particular song and, ultimately, to the whole album. The style and structure of the songs doesn't diverge through album (with the exception of solos in Freezing Moon and Life Eternal); it mostly relies on riffs, but their variety doesn't let the album sound monotonous any second of it. Although production is not the highest quality, guitars and drums can be clearly heard so the sound is pretty much comprehensible.

De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is a great example of Norwegian black metal and it is definitely an album every metalhead should check out. Although Mayhem has changed their style in later albums (which are great as well), there is no dispute over the strong impact of their debut album, which has, as one of the most important pieces in the history of black metal, undeniably contributed to the evolution of a genre.