Dimmu Borgir Albums (12)
'World Misantrophy'
Release Date 6/5/2009
Tracks 8
Label Nuclear Blast
See Album Tracklist and Review
'The Invaluable Darkness'
Release Date 10/6/2008
Tracks 51
Label Nuclear Blast
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'In Sorte Diaboli'
Release Date 4/24/2007
Tracks 10
Label Nuclear Blast
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What The Critics Say
Dimmu Borgir's brand of symphonic black metal, industrial rock and near-classical melodic fare has been developing nicely since their beginning in the 1990s. The crew backing Shagrath's lead vocals -- killer guitar by Erkekjetter Silenoz and some wonderfully harmonic backing vocals that are near operatic, or at least influenced by Jon Anderson and Yes -- have become a brand in metal. With In Sorte Diaboli, the band has gone the route of Therion and numerous others in creating a concept album about a man who grows up in fear and ignorance and believes in the Christian church, and somehow, after studying for years as a monk, rejects everything and becomes a heretic who runs afoul of the church. In doing so, he understands his fate is at stake. Musically, Dimmu Borgir are unrelentingly brutal and harmonic all at once. Songs meld and blend into one another, becoming a nightmarish brood of shred and scrape dreamscapes. The transitions in tunes such as "The Conspiracy Unfolds" and "The Sacrilegious Scorn," the former with its intense blastbeats and ranging power riffs and the latter tune's classically themed melodic invention, are simply seductive as keyboard and snares and toms give way to powerful guitar and bass thrums. When the chorus enters, full of four-part harmony and key changes that open onto a vista of darkness, it's almost irresistible. One can't fault Dimmu Borgir for their position that manmade Christian religion is a form of control and has been from the beginning, though their own ignorance -- willful, no doubt -- is almost laughable. After all, if the only accounts of the dark spirit known as Satan are from the same ancient Hebrew narratives in Genesis, how is the worship of Satan supposedly closer to the animal instincts of human nature and different than another set of manmade beliefs with even less textual evidence? This is part of what's wrong with all of the these narratives that claim, at their basest, that Christianity is bad and full of bondage while Satanism is good and promises freedom to do what thou wilt. It simply inverts the paradigm, but it's the same paradigm. Therefore the lyrics here are cheesy, as is the narrative in the liner notes that precedes the music. Oh yeah: one needs a mirror to be able to read the lyrics. Luckily, they are high enough up in the mix to actually hear. Ultimately, how is this album different from the Who's Tommy? Musically yes, but lyrically it's consciously more venomous, the darkness that lurks within them both is similar, and both promise a kind of freedom, only Tommy's doesn't come with death by the Church. There's really great stuff here in the music, the production, in the sound effects. Too bad it all melts down when it comes to the concept, which is ho hum at best -- at least Slayer made a case against Christianity and war while choosing the devil. This all boils down to having to make a choice. The humanist perspective is the freedom not to make a choice at all. This all amounts to sermonizing and creating propaganda for the other side. It's still boring. Perhaps Dimmu Borgir should have spent more time listening to labelmates Therion's Gothic Kaballah for a truly interesting concept. [The 2007 Avalon edition included one bonus track.] ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
'Death Cult Armageddon'
Release Date 1/1/2003
Tracks 11
Label Nuclear Blast
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What The Critics Say
Purists may bristle at the notion, but by 2003, Dimmu Borgir had become the ultimate neo-black metal band. With Mayhem and Enslaved exploring the tattered ends of avant-garde experimentation, Emperor and Immortal broken up, Darkthrone still clattering away in the garage, and Cradle of Filth underwhelming everyone with their too-dense-for-its-own-good major-label debut, Damnation and a Day, Dimmu Borgir unleashed the stunningly impressive Death Cult Armageddon. The CD booklet boasts an artist's rendering of a twisted metal machination surrounded by a sea of skulls and bones, which is a perfect analogy for the trajectory of Dimmu's musical vision -- immense, strange, and jutting in all directions, an imposing and powerful monstrosity that's the concoction of a few brilliantly twisted minds. In fact, Death Cult may be the closest-to-perfect amalgamation of the hallowed genres of black, death, thrash, gothic/industrial, and symphonic metal -- heavy on the symphonic, because here the bullet-belted, corpse-painted Norwegians collaborate with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and reap the benefits with savage glee. The orchestra lends overwhelming and full-bodied sonic bombast to "Vredsbyrd," "Eradication Instincts Defined," and "Progenies of the Great Apocalypse," the latter two so vast and epic in scope they seem to spot weld John Williams/Star Wars compositional soundtrack drama to blastbeating black metal nastiness -- and while naysayers claim strings make metal wimpy, here they're seamlessly integrated and lend power and profundity to the arrangements. Elsewhere, Dimmu's songwriting is firing on all cylinders, and there's nary a microsecond of filler on the whole album: the neck-snapping thrash of "Lepers Among Us" and "Cataclysm Children"; the clanging industrial samples and submerged-in-petroleum vocal effects of "Unorthodox Manifesto"; the off-kilter vocal gnashing and tumbling piano during the verses of "Blood Hunger Doctrine." While most stood in awe of Dimmu's previous album, Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia, because of its stellar lineup -- vocalist Shagrath, guitarists Silenoz and Galder, bassist/vocalist Vortex, drummer Nicholas Barker, and keyboardist Mustis -- Death Cult Armageddon finds more songwriting credits belonging to Mustis, who lends his hands to the symphony-heavy tracks and may be the band's holy-hell hand grenade hidden among the cloaking personalities of his bandmates. Add in two wonderfully blood-retching "duets" between Shagrath and former Immortal croaker Abbath -- on "Progenies..." and album-closer "Heavenly Perverse" -- and the record represents the most precise, calculated, and consistently devastating sound and fury to emerge from the metal underground in the early 2000s (where it belongs next to Immortal's Sons of Northern Darkness and Emperor's Prometheus in the hellish hall of fame). Death Cult Armageddon finds Dimmu Borgir gloriously fulfilling the potential exuded on Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia and breakthrough release Enthrone Darkness Triumphant, and officially staking claim to the heap of bones and armor known as the Scandinavian black metal scene. [The digipak version of Death Cult Armageddon includes a bonus-track cover of Bathory's "Satan My Master," and the album was released in multiple formats, including an elaborate metal box and a loose-leaf notebook with metal and parchment pages.] ~ John Serba, All Music Guide
'Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia'
Release Date 3/19/2001
Tracks 11
Label Nuclear Blast
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What The Critics Say
In spite of straying so far from its black metal roots as to almost seem a completely different band at times, Dimmu Borgir still packs a powerful punch on Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia. New guitarist Galder (formerly of Old Man's Child) nicely infuses more traditional metallic mannerisms, but the addition of drummer Nicholas Barker (Cradle of Filth and Lock Up) is critical. His always-punishing percussive prowess allows the seamless melding of speedy black metal with considerably more orchestration, this time around provided by the Gothenburg Opera Orchestra itself, creating a cacophony of nefarious melodies atop gothic gloom. "Puritania" is indicative of something the band probably would never have tried even a few years ago, a stirring descant with a myriad of vocal styles seemingly coming from all directions. A minority of purists might see this as too much of a departure, a complaint that would have more merit if Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia wasn't as exquisite as it is diverse. The Japanese edition features a bonus CD with two tracks, including a cheeky cover of Twisted Sister's "Burn in Hell" and two videos. ~ Brian O'Neill, All Music Guide
'Alive in Torment'
Release Date 1/1/2001
Tracks 5
Label Nuclear Blast
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What The Critics Say
Stormblast, Dimmu Borgir's second full-length album, has all the makings of a future first-tier black metal outfit finding its footing in the misty, cragged mountains of Norway. However, unlike most of its Scandinavian accomplices, Dimmu's sound got progressively more aggressive as its career advanced, making Stormblast a relatively tame entry in its catalog. Still, the band's youthful exuberance would have benefited from a more punchy production; the flat, faceless mix relegates indiscriminately buzzing guitars to the background while keyboards wash over the arrangements -- a big no-no in metal circles, where even crudely recorded albums push guitar grind to the forefront. Lengthy, melancholy piano instrumentals, too many mid-paced tempos, and an overabundance of goth-flavored synth mush will test the patience of those looking for a more visceral approach (and the Norwegian-language lyrics will leave a lot of listeners looking for an emotional peg, although "Antikrist" isn't tough to translate); the record just doesn't cut it when compared to more influential mid-'90s black metal recordings, especially Emperor's In the Nightside Eclipse, Immortal's Battles in the North, and Cradle of Filth's Vempire EP. Stormblast may be an inordinately rocky peak with few handholds, but it's still a worthy climb for black metal historians, if only to compare and contrast Dimmu Borgir's embryonic state prior to the sonic overhaul that came with its benchmark album, the grand, irrepressible Enthrone Darkness Triumphant. ~ John Serba, All Music Guide
'Devil's Path/In the Shades of Life'
Release Date 12/7/1999
Tracks 9
Label Hammerheart
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'Sons of Satan Gather for Attack'
Release Date 10/1/1999
Tracks 9
Label Hammerheart
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'Godless Savage Garden'
Release Date 1/1/1998
Tracks 8
Label Nuclear Blast
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What The Critics Say
As a way to tide fans over during the recording of Dimmu Borgir's third proper full-length album, the hodgepodge Godless Savage Garden was issued in 1998. It contains three live tracks, two re-recorded songs from the debut album For All Tid, and two never-before-released studio songs. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
