If you know anything about black metal then you will know of Dimmu Borgir, one of the bands at the forefront of the second wave of black metal. The Norwegian duo of guitarist Silenoz and vocalist Shagrath, have been one of the biggest success stories of that often most controversial of genres.
As with so many of these bands their approach to music has changed over the years with the raw, visceral beginnings transforming into epic, cinematic extreme metal opuses, where the orchestrations and atmosphere collide with tremolo picking and blast beats.
Dimmu Borgir are band who are unaffected by schedules, their post 2010 output arrive when they are ready, not a moment before, each moment is agonised over, written and rewritten, recorded and re-recorded and not unleashed upon their audience until they believe it's reached the right level of quality.
So eight years after Eonian comes Grand Serpent Rising, the next chapter of symphonic black metal in the Dimmu Borgir bastion and it's a 13 track monster that was born out of marathon recording sessions where they produced enough material for two albums.
Ruthlessly culled to these 13 cuts, the loss of long time axeman Galder, meant a lot of the leg work was done by Shagrath and Silenoz as it always has been in the past. Daray (drums), Victor Brandt (bass), Gerlioz (keyboards), and Damage (guitars) all brought their own flavour to the record, the latter as many solos as he can pack in.
Ruthlessly culled to these 13 cuts, the loss of long time axeman Galder, meant a lot of the leg work was done by Shagrath and Silenoz as it always has been in the past. Daray (drums), Victor Brandt (bass), Gerlioz (keyboards), and Damage (guitars) all brought their own flavour to the record, the latter as many solos as he can pack in.
The band again recording with Fredrik Nordström who produced the band back in the early 2000's so can easily capture what Dimmu Borgir sound like. Though the idea here was to capture what Dimmu sound like on stage as a refined, veteran outfit who put effort and care into every moment.
Beginning with a choral, spoken word intro that draws you into the record as Ascent welcomes frigid Northern darkness, sounding like their rawer early selves, the orchestrations swell in the background as we get a melodic solo section before the frantic riffs return.
It's an intense start that summons the Dimmu of old while the more recent style can be felt with the layered and expansive As Seen In The Unseen, though Silenoz himself says that "we scaled back the choirs and orchestration a little", they're potent on As Seen In The Unseen, an almost spectral track with a heavy chug to it.
On The Qyrptfarer, they add more power and dynamics when needed, the piano especially effective, to follow Ulvgjelr & Blodsodel (Wolf's Debt" and "Blood Law/Guilt) enters into the Viking metal realm of choirs and swashbuckling riffs, the lyrics in their native Norwegian to add to the tale of ancient heritage and folklore of ancestral debt.
However some tracks strip them away, to highlight that Dimmu Borgir still can be that visceral force that shook the world back in the mid-Nineties. Repository Of Divine Transmutation, The Exonerated and Slik Minnes En Alkymist all giving the feeling of that Second Wave ferocity, the latter again performed in Norwegian to fully relive their early years.
If you you were in love with frankly cinematic Eonian then you may find the reduction in grandeur a little confusing on Grand Serpent Rising, but serpents are very good at shedding their skin and becoming something similar but not the same.
This new album is Dimmu Borgir creating their most dynamic album yet, stringing together all the moments of their career in a fantastic exhibition of the human condition and masterful extreme metal. 9/10
Blindead 23 - Deuterium (Peaceville)
Blindead are dead, long live Blindead 23, or something, as the Polish avant-metal band return with a slightly altered name, a slightly altered sound and nearly all new members. After being on hold between 2019 and 2022, the original line up of Blindead decided to call it quits after six brilliant but perhaps under appreciated albums outside of the progressive metal sphere.
Beginning with a choral, spoken word intro that draws you into the record as Ascent welcomes frigid Northern darkness, sounding like their rawer early selves, the orchestrations swell in the background as we get a melodic solo section before the frantic riffs return.
It's an intense start that summons the Dimmu of old while the more recent style can be felt with the layered and expansive As Seen In The Unseen, though Silenoz himself says that "we scaled back the choirs and orchestration a little", they're potent on As Seen In The Unseen, an almost spectral track with a heavy chug to it.
On The Qyrptfarer, they add more power and dynamics when needed, the piano especially effective, to follow Ulvgjelr & Blodsodel (Wolf's Debt" and "Blood Law/Guilt) enters into the Viking metal realm of choirs and swashbuckling riffs, the lyrics in their native Norwegian to add to the tale of ancient heritage and folklore of ancestral debt.
However some tracks strip them away, to highlight that Dimmu Borgir still can be that visceral force that shook the world back in the mid-Nineties. Repository Of Divine Transmutation, The Exonerated and Slik Minnes En Alkymist all giving the feeling of that Second Wave ferocity, the latter again performed in Norwegian to fully relive their early years.
If you you were in love with frankly cinematic Eonian then you may find the reduction in grandeur a little confusing on Grand Serpent Rising, but serpents are very good at shedding their skin and becoming something similar but not the same.
This new album is Dimmu Borgir creating their most dynamic album yet, stringing together all the moments of their career in a fantastic exhibition of the human condition and masterful extreme metal. 9/10
Blindead 23 - Deuterium (Peaceville)
Blindead are dead, long live Blindead 23, or something, as the Polish avant-metal band return with a slightly altered name, a slightly altered sound and nearly all new members. After being on hold between 2019 and 2022, the original line up of Blindead decided to call it quits after six brilliant but perhaps under appreciated albums outside of the progressive metal sphere.
In 2022 though guitarist Mateusz "Havoc" Smierzchalski founded a new version of the band and started recording a year later thus the addition of 23 to the name. The former Behemoth guitarist recruited Roger Öjersson (ex-Katatonia) on guitar, Pawel "Pavulon" Jaroszewicz (Vltimas, ex-Vader, ex-Decapitated) on drums and Patryk Zwoliński on vocals. This is the line up that recorded Deuterium, their debut for Peaceville and as Blindead 23 though seventh album overall.
Enough about that though as Blindead 23 may share most of their name with their previous form but they have adapted their sound for this record to encompass the cavernous, atmospheric post/sludge heaviness of their earlier albums with electronics and ambience creating soundscapes you can liken to Opeth, Cult Of Luna and Katatonia.
With this rebirth the band don't leave you short changed of you've been waiting with newly and hour of music where the songs all flow into one another to create enveloping soundscapes, where the synths/electronics interweave with the metallic dissonance, clean and harsh vocals merge and the result is music that is experimental, layered and textured with a virtuosity that songwriting ahead of showing off.
Take the undulating Worst Laid Plans, its got a throbbing groove to it that shifts seamlessly into the extreme blast of the title track and then into the brilliant Towards The Dark, which is a sublime slice of melodic modern prog metal. Blindead 23 feels new and old, there's overspill from who they were under their previous identity, taking the post metal buoyancy and introspection of their latter work with the lumbering sludge of their earlier records, though this 23 edition add more glistening melody than the original line up.
So if you liked Blindead you'll like Blindead 23, but on their debut with Peaceville, Deuterium, they have refined what they do for people who may not have knowledge of who they were before, opening them and their brilliant music up to a whole new audience. 9/10
As The Sun Falls - Songs From The Veil (Theogonia Records)
Third album from Finnish masters of melancholic melodic death metal has As The Sun Falls looking towards their past, the shadows of their Nordic history are explored through their most immersive album yet.
As The Sun Falls are a band who clearly have a lot of creative juice flowing as their previous albums have come in 2021 and 2024 so this is their third album in as many years and it's based around Finnish mythology, conceptually based around the tales of the Soulbird and the Fire Fox.
As The Sun Falls put one particularly personal song about loss in between all these mythical tales without losing the sense of mystery in the folklore but still retaining a human fragility. Songs From The Veil is an album of differences, heavy death metal growls and blast beats are met with atmospheric passages of clean voices and ambient guitars.
The result is an album that feels both ancient and immediate, cinematic yet intimate, where folklore, nature, and human fragility bleed seamlessly into one another, from the acoustic guitars of 9 Days Of Sorrow/Blood To The Soil, through the anthemic A Shimmer On The Tides/Burning Snow, to the blistering As The Night Devours/Silent Waters, the level of performance and playing here is very high.
Songs From The Veil features some of the most impressive music from the band, taking influences from Insomnium and Omnium Gatherum, As The Sun Falls invite us beyond the veil into their own world with album three. 8/10
Atavistia - Old Gods Awaken (Blood Blast Distribution)
From one frozen realm to another as we head to Canada now for the new album from the cinematic sounds of Atavistia, a band who sound profoundly Scandinavian but have a whole ocean between them and influences such as Wintersun and Ensiferum.
Fusing melodic death, black and folk metal they've been performing Norse inspired theatrical metal since 2017, with every album increasing their cinematic skills, from layered orchestrations, to folk instrumentation and their involved storytelling.
With Old Gods Awaken, they write their next chapter, written in six month flurry, the focus was to get it as tight as they could, fast and furious as they streamline their attack while keeping the progressive and folk elements that have become their calling cards.
A track like Mystic Tavern illustrates this brilliantly by putting flutes and strings against the melodeath blasting, while Seeker Of Time leans deeply into the concept of this record, telling the story of time bending sorcerer with a track where the time signatures and genre styles shift
Old Gods Awaken is the first half of a two album concept, this on being the light side of the stories, which explains why the tracks all feel so upbeat and full of grandeur. To add more depth Atavistia recorded songs in English, Swedish and Finnish, bringing them closer to their Norse inspirations in more than just their music but their lyrics too.
Though it's not cultural appropriation as frontman Mattias Sippola has Scandinavian heritage so he's writing about his history and myth in these songs, filtering them through cinematic metal that few other bands have the skill to pull off.
If any of the bands I've mentioned are in your like then I suggest picking up this album, equally if ultra melodic extreme metal with folk styles used throughout sounds like a good time then awaken the old gods with Atavistia. 8/10
As The Sun Falls - Songs From The Veil (Theogonia Records)
Third album from Finnish masters of melancholic melodic death metal has As The Sun Falls looking towards their past, the shadows of their Nordic history are explored through their most immersive album yet.
As The Sun Falls are a band who clearly have a lot of creative juice flowing as their previous albums have come in 2021 and 2024 so this is their third album in as many years and it's based around Finnish mythology, conceptually based around the tales of the Soulbird and the Fire Fox.
As The Sun Falls put one particularly personal song about loss in between all these mythical tales without losing the sense of mystery in the folklore but still retaining a human fragility. Songs From The Veil is an album of differences, heavy death metal growls and blast beats are met with atmospheric passages of clean voices and ambient guitars.
The result is an album that feels both ancient and immediate, cinematic yet intimate, where folklore, nature, and human fragility bleed seamlessly into one another, from the acoustic guitars of 9 Days Of Sorrow/Blood To The Soil, through the anthemic A Shimmer On The Tides/Burning Snow, to the blistering As The Night Devours/Silent Waters, the level of performance and playing here is very high.
Songs From The Veil features some of the most impressive music from the band, taking influences from Insomnium and Omnium Gatherum, As The Sun Falls invite us beyond the veil into their own world with album three. 8/10
Atavistia - Old Gods Awaken (Blood Blast Distribution)
From one frozen realm to another as we head to Canada now for the new album from the cinematic sounds of Atavistia, a band who sound profoundly Scandinavian but have a whole ocean between them and influences such as Wintersun and Ensiferum.
Fusing melodic death, black and folk metal they've been performing Norse inspired theatrical metal since 2017, with every album increasing their cinematic skills, from layered orchestrations, to folk instrumentation and their involved storytelling.
With Old Gods Awaken, they write their next chapter, written in six month flurry, the focus was to get it as tight as they could, fast and furious as they streamline their attack while keeping the progressive and folk elements that have become their calling cards.
A track like Mystic Tavern illustrates this brilliantly by putting flutes and strings against the melodeath blasting, while Seeker Of Time leans deeply into the concept of this record, telling the story of time bending sorcerer with a track where the time signatures and genre styles shift
Old Gods Awaken is the first half of a two album concept, this on being the light side of the stories, which explains why the tracks all feel so upbeat and full of grandeur. To add more depth Atavistia recorded songs in English, Swedish and Finnish, bringing them closer to their Norse inspirations in more than just their music but their lyrics too.
Though it's not cultural appropriation as frontman Mattias Sippola has Scandinavian heritage so he's writing about his history and myth in these songs, filtering them through cinematic metal that few other bands have the skill to pull off.
If any of the bands I've mentioned are in your like then I suggest picking up this album, equally if ultra melodic extreme metal with folk styles used throughout sounds like a good time then awaken the old gods with Atavistia. 8/10
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