There are two statements given by Silenoz that I would like to share with my children of the night. Both are kind of related to the quality of this recent Dimmu Borgir “Grand Serpent Rising.” The first is about quality and the process of recording an album:
“No question: quality must always trump quantity,” Silenoz states with calm certainty. “We eventually set deadlines, but in the early stages of a new album, there are no schedules at all. Rushing means nothing to us. The most powerful blackened art simply can’t be forced without losing its essence.”
The second is about a cliché we all hear bands saying when they release a new album:
“I know it’s a massive cliché to say this is our best album,” he admits. “But look at it this way: why would we even bother doing this if we didn’t feel that way ourselves? When both the band and the producer feel the mission has been fully accomplished, whatever comes from the outside; fans, journalists, critics – is secondary. If people love it, great. If there’s criticism, that’s fine too. It doesn’t affect us. We walk our own dark paths regardless.”
From where I am sit and from everything I heard in “Grand Serpent Rising,” I understand both statements reveal a band that is doing everything possible to reach its creative peak. To some extent, it might also mean a band that is trying to expand its genre’s boundaries. That takes us to a very important due to the relevance of Dimmu Borgir to the Black Metal genre: Is “Grand Serpent Rising” a genre breakthrough? Well, to be fair with the band, I guess the answer is yes and no. My guess is that the band is expanding their view of the Black Metal genre. That would fit much better.
I guess if my dear Dimmu Borgir hardcore fan listens only to album starter the intro “Tridentium” and then to “Ascent” some mixed emotions will rise. First of all, this intro is so grand and so pompous. Ok, this is a feature Black Metal bands are incorporating to their music, but, I guess, it is too pompous for Dimmu Borgir; on the other hand, we all agree the band has been shifting throught the years. Well, too pompous or not the tracks are great. On the other hand, “Ascent“ tells more about the band’s influnces than itself. I mean, the guitars rely a lot on 1980s sonancies and textures more notably on the solos. As far as my dear fan can recall, the band’s previous album, the 2023s “Inspiratio Profanus,” was a cover album where it was possible to tell the band’s influences. As a matter of fact, there were many 1980s bands as inspiration since the most obvious as Venom and Bathory and others not so much as Twisted Sisters – I lived that long to see it happening.
In general, the tracks in “Grand Serpent Rising” are long and, let’s say, far away from Dimmu Borgir‘s early albums. For instance, “As Seen in the Unseen” and “The Qryptfarer” are pretty modern Black Metal pieces for the best and for the worst. From where I am sit, I do like this kind of orchestration grandness the band used a lot in the company of a more complex songwriting with lots of variations on vocals, a thing that Black Metal bands, in general, do not rely too much. It is not that they do not care about vocals, it is that for the Black Metal subgenre vocals are done in a very strict manner. Add to that, as many of their peers, the band is adding many cinematic features to its music having “Ulvgjeld & Blodsodel“ as a great example.
“Grand Serpent Rising” is an examplary piece of Modern Black Metal with all its twisted pompousness and grandness. It is an album tha updates Dimmu Borgir‘s music and takes them to another level.
Dimmu Borgir “Grand Serpent Rising” will be released on May 22nd via Nuclear Blast Records.
Track Listing
1. Tridentium
2. Ascent
3. As Seen in the Unseen
4. The Qryptfarer
5. Ulvgjeld & Blodsodel
6. Repository of Divine Transmutation
7. Slik Minnes en Alkymist
8. Phantom of the Nemesis
9. The Exonerated
10. Recognizant
11. At the Precipice of Convergence
12. Shadows of a Thousand Perceptions
13. Gjǫl
Watch “Ascent” official music video here:
I’m just a lucky guy who has chosen metal to live with for a long time. Metal changed my life for good. It made me more confident and stronger. Metalheads are naturally far away from the mass mediocrity and don’t accept impostures from anybody else. Metal is more than music, it’s a life changing oportunity!