Dimmu Borgir - Enthrone Darkness Triumphant review
| Band: | Dimmu Borgir |
| Album: | Enthrone Darkness Triumphant |
| Style: | Black metal |
| Release date: | May 1997 |
01. Mourning Palace
02. Spellbound (By The Devil)
03. In Death's Embrace
04. Relinquishment Of Spirit And Flesh
05. The Night Masquerade
06. Tormentor Of Christian Souls
07. Entrance
08. Master Of Disharmony
09. Prudence's Fall
10. A Succubus In Rapture
11. Raabjørn Speiler Draugheimens Skodde [bonus]
This album is called the greatest work of Dimmu Borgir, the high point in their career, but also the last to contain the norsk black metal style. Indeed it is a very good album, but nevertheless it is already nothing of black metal any more. Enthrone Darkness Triumphant was the first step into the direction of Cradle Of Filth, this can clearly be heard in the new production and songwriting style. But to keep unique in a way, Dimmu Borgir decided to fill the gap between black and symphonic with synth sounds. If you compare this album to their former effort Stormblåst, it is hard to believe that you listen to the same band with only one year difference.
Well, let's see how the new style expressed in Enthrone Darkness Triumphant during the 56 minutes this album has. We have great tracks in here, some legendary and well known by all the metalheads, and we have songs that sound like they try too hard to be something special. The opener, "Mourning Palace," obviously counts among the famous and excellent songs and is indeed a very special one. The next two songs are of the same brilliance without doubt and "Spellbound (By The Devil)" contains an awesome and yet quite catchy chorus that is one of the greatest ever written by Dimmu Borgir. Unfortunately, the whole mixture of speed, synth, and this special sound loses steam and after the first three songs the downfall starts, over-produced and blasting around with no sense; Shagrath sounds like he would cut off his hands to get a voice like Dani Filth. It goes on like this until "Entrance," which definitely marks a point of new originality. But it only remains a point, the next two songs are of the same bloody blindness as the ones before. In "Master Of Disharmony," Shagrath again wants so hard to be Dani Filth, and it really would fit better to it if he was. I have never thought his vocals were anything special, since on this release they are pretty much all the same, he only takes more spoken parts from album to album. In Stormblåst he had a bunch of awesome moments where he sounds like a demon. In the end, the last song is also the last highlight on this album and very remarkable.
I guess I am one of the fans who want the Stormblåst-Dimmu back, because Stormblåst is really one of the greatest black (!) metal records of all time. Dimmu Borgir have unfortunately never again released anything like "Alt Lys Er Svunnet Hen" or "Da Den Kristne Satte Livet Til." To conclude, we have five fantastic songs and five average ones. For adding a new version of "Raabjørn Speiler Draugheimens Skodde," which is together with the Stormblåst songs the best ever written by Dimmu Borgir, I give it a little bonus.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 8 |
| Songwriting: | 8 |
| Originality: | 8 |
| Production: | 9 |
Written by Windrider | 08.01.2011
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Rating:
9.5
9.5
|
Rating: 9.5 |
Enthrone Darkness Triumphant had been recorded and produced in January 1997 at Abyss Studios, which is located in Sweden. This was Dimmu Borgir's first release through Nuclear Blast records, as well as their first album to contain English lyrics. This album, to my knowledge is highly acclaimed, and their best selling as far as I know, from what I have read in other reviews and statistics. It is quite a milestone and had been a huge stepping stone for for the band, as it contains more profound musical structures. The melody in several songs, especially the opening for 'Mourning Palace' is quite superb sounding. The dark elements are more vivid, yet hellishly eerie than what they had shown in previous releases. If you don't believe me check out 'Relinquishment Of Spirit And Flesh'. Clearly what stands out in this album is the band's musicality, they display great musicianship, with far more structured songs. Check out, 'Spellbound By The Devil' as a grand example to hear how their collaboration seemed to take a great step forward. Read more ›› |
Rating:
9.1
9.1
|
Rating: 9.1 |
In this review I want to voice my opinion about one of the best metal albums of all time. First of all, changes after the previous albums are conspicuous enough to be mentioned. If we want to categorize Dimmu Borgir albums, there are four periods: The first wave (1993-1996), the second wave (1997-1999), the third wave (1999-2009) and the fully orchestral and choral era. This record is the beginning of Dimmu Borgir's second wave. Read more ›› |
Comments
Comments: 4
Visited by: 86 users
| Cryzpin Posts: 113  |
The claim that Shagrath tries to sound like Dani Filth is quite ridiculous to me. I gave it some listens to be sure and there is actually nothing in common imo. But the color of voice is not an arguable nor are the motives of the vocalist. I do worship this album as a seminal melodic black metal sound, while on Stormblast they seemed not to be decided whether to go melodic/symphonic or stick to the "pure" black.
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| Windrider Raureif Posts: 684  |
Written by Cryzpin on 19.03.2011 at 14:47 To me Stormblast was a lot more cunning and intelligent, really good thought and therefore quality black metal, with an awesome atmosphere! This album also shows it in various songs, but others are just this nonsense-blasting and sound like "Yeah, we have got a great record deal, now let's do some quick shit to become famous."
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist staff Posts: 21306  |
Quote: I'd like you to elaborate on that if you wouldn't mind. How you mix this up with a wannabe CoF release is beyond me. I think this album sticks to the more "true" side of (albeit melodic/symphonic) black metal, whereas the two albums CoF released between this (Dusk... and Cruelty) featured more Gothic elements, removing them from contention with bands like Limbonic Art and Obtained Enslavement. Quote: Even with Dani in his prime, this album would have been ruined by his vocals, which fit the sound of mid-'90s CoF, not Dimmu. Shagrath wasn't the greatest voice in black metal at the time, but he remains true to form and his style is much more aggressive on this release; thus, they fit better with Dimmu's style on this album, and I highly doubt Shagrath would risk even losing a finger to sound like Dani.  Just because both bands helped in the mainstreaming of black metal, doesn't mean either are responsible for copying each other. Heck, you could have compared this with Old Man's Child or Graveworm, but I doubt you'd say Shagrath would saw his leg off to sound like future guitarist Galder or Stefan Fiori. Just my two cents.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Cryzpin Posts: 113 |
Written by Windrider on 19.03.2011 at 19:14 I can agree with you on the part of Stormblast being "more intelligent" than EDT, although i would rather use the terms more elaborated or more profound. It just doesn't have such impact on me as the latter in terms of resonance. The atmosphere is imo immense on both albums. The "nonsense-blasting" and "quick shit" is just too dismissive for EDT, but not so for after-EDT releases that i don't like at all.
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