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REVIEW: DIMMU BORGIR - IN SORTE DIABOLI
Ratings: 4/5
Release Year: 27th April 2007
Type: Album (In Sorte Diaboli)
Genre: Melodic Black Metal
Review By: Rny
It’s been four long, very long years since Dimmu Borgir’s last album, Death Cult Armageddon, was released. The wait was even more intolerable considering the quality of DCA! Of course, the band wasn’t exactly inactive during all this time: between several solo projects (Old Man’s Child, Chrome Division,…), it also re-released Stormblåst, the original being a great but poorly produced album from 1996.
This re-release (awesome by the way) also represented a perfect way to introduce Dimmu’s new drummer to the fans. Nicholas Barker’s replacement is no other than black metal legend and Mayhem drum-beast Hellhammer, so fans shouldn’t worry about the quality of that department on the new DB album! Everyone can be sure of one thing: In Sorte Diaboli ain’t no disappointment whatsoever, the band took its time to record a worthy successor to DCA. Lyrically, the album represented a new challenge: for the first time in the band’s history, it made a concept-album. The story apparently is about a priest’s apprentice slowly rejecting his religious beliefs to become none less than the Devil’s incarnation. Silenoz (guitars) wrote the whole concept and the man did an awesome job! The concept really gives the album unity and consistence.
Musically, I made the same observation: all the songs are tied together, while all being very distinctive from one another.
Now that doesn’t mean In Sorte Diaboli is an easy album. On the contrary: it is much more difficult to apprehend than Death Cult Armageddon and Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia. The first track, The Serpentine Offering, is a perfect transition between DCA and ISD (it strongly reminds us to the track Progenies of the Great Apocalypse), while not being a great song actually. The rest of the album is much more difficult to get into, and I must advice everyone to listen to it several times to appreciate it as it should. So in that sense, In Sorte Diaboli is a step forward: the writing is more complex than on other albums, there are less “catchy” moments, especially compared to DCA.
Overall, this is a more guitar-driven album. The keyboards are much more discrete and explore a few new things, while Silenoz and Galder’s guitars are blasting from everywhere. Some of the riffs are pretty awesome, like on The Chosen Legacy or The Sinister Awakening, and more generally a few tracks are truly fantastic, particularly The Chosen Legacy and The Sacrilegious Scorn. The vocals are, as always, of excellent quality. Although he doesn’t have the most original voice in the genre, I must admit Shagrath always does a great job. Vortex’s clean vocals are as discrete and as effective as on DCA, maybe even more! His work on The Sacrilegious Scorn is particularly awesome. The same can be stated about Hellhammer’s work. Once again, the man proves he’s one of the greatest (if not the greatest) extreme metal drummer. While not being as versatile as in Mayhem (in which the whole extent of his incredible talent can be heard), his performance on this album is very solid and ultra-tight.
Now with all that being said, you must think In Sorte Diaboli is the black metal album of the year, right? Wrong, unfortunately. The album represents a true challenge to the band and I must salute their courage, especially since the result is far from being a failure. But I still think Death Cult Armageddon and Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia are both better albums than this one. ISD has an impenetrable feeling, which can be a good thing, but even after a lot of listening-sessions, it still lacks more memorable moments. The album is well written and well performed, but I’m missing a little more soul here. Especially from a band still (partly) evolving in the black metal genre, I was expecting a bit more of that soul, precisely. Still I must admit I’m being very demanding here, cuz’ this is still a great album. But that’s the thing with great bands: you expect the best…and then even more.