Ah finally it came - I'm talking about the latest album
Death Cult Armageddon from the Norwegian black metallers
Dimmu Borgir. Their last studio album
Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia became a huge success and was proclaimed as one of the greatest black metal albums of all time. It is always extremely hard to follow up on something like that, so let's take a look at how well it came out.
Death Cult
Armageddon is a natural continuation of Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia. The style of the music has not changed much -
Dimmu Borgir mix extreme black metal elements with bombastic keyboard parts and elements from classical music. This makes the music very atmospheric and the sound becomes very broad and interesting for the listener.
One thing is different, however, on this album. While there were orchestral arrangements on the previous album -
Dimmu Borgir have taken this to a whole new level on Death Cult
Armageddon. The orchestra is much more audible on this album, and that is in fact not so strange. The Band have chosen to use Prague Philharmonic Orchestra on the album, and this addition gives Death Cult
Armageddon a massive sound I have not heard on any other black metal album. Some songs on the album even have a soundtrack feel to them.
The album is recorded in Studio Fredman, and it is hard to put a finger on anything bad on the production of Death Cult
Armageddon. A good production is often recognized when nothing bad springs in one's ear, and this is exactly the case with this album. Shagrath still has the job as vocalist, and once again he does a good job with varied and very personal vocals. On Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia he experimented with various effects on the vocals, but this is, not the case on Death Cult
Armageddon - this is a good thing in my opinion!
Guitarists Silenoz and Galder (front man of Old Man's Child) deliver some very powerful and ingenious riffs that you just have to admire. The blast beat drums are once again performed by (Ex-Cradle of Filth) Nicholas Barker - he plays with a magnificent tightness and inventiveness. Mustis deliver the atmospheric and melodic keyboard parts. And Finally Vortex is the backup vocalist who sings with clean vocals - creating a great contrast to Shagrath's harsh vocals.
The opener
Allegiance is an excellent track. It has a long and sombre intro which reminds me of an intro to a
Satyricon song I can't remember the title of. It has a great flow and switches between super fast passages and slower parts dominated by keyboard. The next song is called
Progenies of the great Apocalypse and it is a good example of the "soundtrack sound" I mentioned earlier. It starts out with the orchestra playing a part that could be taken out of any Hollywood adventure movie. The only difference is the heavy guitar and drums that play at the same time. This track also features a guest performance by Abbath (front man of the now split up black metal band Immortal).
My favorite track on the album will have to be
For The World To Dictate Our Death. It starts out with Barker showing off his drum skills; it then progresses into a very fast and very black metallish part. It is a stunning and very energetic song that has everything from pure aggression to melodic and atmospheric parts. The intro to
Eradication Instincts Defined reminds me a bit of Danny Elfman's genious soundtrack to the movie "The Nightmare Before Christmas". It is a song with the orchestral arrangements heavily incorporated, and it has an intelligent composition.
OK, it is time for the conclusion. Is this album a worthy successor of Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia? Yes, definitely. Is it as good as Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia? That is indeed a tougher question - I think my favorite
Dimmu Borgir album is still Puritanical, but this album has the potential to grow even more. I forgot to mention that Death Cult
Armageddon is actually quite accessible, so if you're new to black metal this is a good place to start.
We are in the high end of our rating system here people, I give it a 9 out of 10.
Written by
Anders Friday, October 3, 2003
Show all reviews by AndersRatingsAnders: 9/10Members: 10/10 - Average of 1 ratings.
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