Dimmu Borgir Norway

"Wow! I was positively surprised by this one. I'd heard "Gateways" before, and I thought that was a really interesting track because it was relatively complex and, with the symphonic approach, also kind of artsy, and what I really liked was the way in which the band successfully manage to combine the bambasticness of symphonic metal with black metal darkness and bleakness. The part of the tracks that really sold me was when they inserted a black metal style really evil sounding blast beat section in the middle of this otherwise symphonic and more gothic song.

I liked it, so I decided to take a chance and buy the album, and the positive surprise was this: the whole album is like that. It's symphonic, and at times almost avant-garde, and this is combined seamlessly with black metal blasting and other elements from black metal and other types of extreme metal (there are some thrashy parts, too). And it works brilliantly!

This is recommended to fans of extreme metal and ymphonic metal. I think that fans of gothic metal and those fans of black metal who don't operate with the concept of raw black metal being true black metal will like it too.

(review originally posted on metalmusicarchives.com)"