arcane-beautiful This being the bands biggest selling album, you would this to be the band's strongest achievement musically. And in many ways it is. After “Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia” the band had really defined their sound with the use of an orchestra and the addition of clean vocals to their sound. But what really was holding them back was their rather dark sound. So, for this album, the band cut back on their darkness and looked to make a more contemporary album. And it worked wonders, with the band being as big as they could ever be.

Musically the album is a little bit more contemporary, but it is still very much a rather dark affair. Lyrically the album is very bleak, with a lot of songs being based on rather misanthropic and self loathing topics. I agree, the moments of Satanist power are rather anthemic.

The biggest weakness that I find on this album is probably it's length. Over an hour long, the album does stretch into some rather uncommon territory for a black metal band (with most releases being between 30-50 minutes). Personally I find the album to be rather unbalanced. While the first 8 songs are all between the same length (4 and 5 minutes), the last 3 songs are between 6 to near 9 minutes long. To me, it seems a bit uneven and rather odd to see. The last half I believe is also the weakest half of the album, with more slower placed moments seen and a good bit of 'open space.'

The album opener “Allegiance” is a brilliant and dark opening. With some eerie noises and industrial clinks to begin the song, the song trundles like a behemoth through a forest.

The band's biggest and most known track “Progenies Of The Great Apocalypse”, this has to be one of the most epic and bombastic tracks in metal history. With an absolutely astounding orchestral arrangement by keyboardist Mustis and a build up which leads to a bombastic middle section sung by Vortex and a conclusion which involves Abbath from Immortal's chilly delivery, the song is a metal classic. It is sad it is not as known as it should be.

The album's second single “Vredesbyrd” is a classic Dimmu tune. It's very rare for a song in a foreign language to have me singing along, but the chorus of this song is pretty killer.

One of my personal favourite tracks on the album has to be Allehelgens Død I Helveds Rike. With some killer riffs and an absolutely astounding vocal performance from Vortex, the song is a bit of an underrated classic. This track also has one of the greatest outros ever in a metal song.

One of the most over the top songs on the album has to be “Eradication Instincts Defined.” With a brilliant orchestral intro, the song builds up to a pretty epic and amazing climax. Definitly one of the highlights on the album.

In conclusion, even though this is the bands most successful album, I believe it to be not one of their best. This is still a pretty great album with some absolutely spellbinding tunes and metal classics. I recommend this to any metal fan, because there are some tracks on this that if you haven't heard already, you need to hear at some point.

8.1/10

Warthur Death Cult Armageddon sees Dimmu Borgir edging a bit closer to the musical style of then-drummer Nicholas Barker's former bandmates in Cradle of Filth - although the emphasis is still on black metal as opposed to eroticised pulp horror gothic metal, there's the same use of symphonic elements to create a distinctly accessible and catchy brand of extreme metal. Is it kvlt? Not even slightly, but I'd rather black metal bands concentrated on creating great music first and cultivating a kvlter-than-thou image second. The overall armageddon atmosphere and the cartoonish depictions of all-out war against life itself lends a bit of cohesion to proceedings and makes this the most interesting Dimmu Borgir albums since Stormblast.

That said, whilst I'm reluctant to mark down an album just for not being TRVE KVLT black metal, at the same time I am more than willing to mark an album down for being unambitious, and that's precisely what Dimmu Borgir seem to be on this release. Sticking inside your comfort zone in a musical genre all about discomfort and the exploration of extremes feels a bit like missing the point to me.

Conor Fynes 'Death Cult Armageddon' - Dimmu Borgir (7/10)

Amidst the allegations that they had finally 'sold out', Dimmu Borgir's 'Death Cult Armageddon' was, and is an album that is met with raised eyebrows throughout the black metal community. True enough, there was an increasing trend towards a more polished production standard and even- dare I mention- melodic hooks, yet the bat continued to proclaim that they were simply trying to 'spread their message to more people'. Now, whether you may love Dimmu Borgir or hate them, it's difficult to deny that they have been ambitious with certain aspects of their music, most notably their incorporation of a symphonic orchestra into their Norwegian black metal sound. 'Death Cult Armageddon' is arguably Dimmu Borgir's most confident use of the symphonic aspect to date, and makes for a cinematic black metal experience, although some of the band's other elements aren't as fleshed out as they should have been.

'Progenies Of The Great Apocalypse' was the first song I ever heard from Dimmu years ago, and it is a fair indicator of the direction of the album, if not its quality. This single would lure me in with a bombastic performance by the Philharmonic Orchestra of Prague (conducted and arranged by Gaute Storaas), as well as some high production values that I wasn't used to for black metal at the time. Although there is nothing else on the album that quite matches the quality of this teaser track, the song's mixture of film score-worthy orchestral music and black metal runs throughout the entirety of 'Death Cult Armageddon'. Although the symphonic sound is nothing new to metal, only a few bands have the dedication and resources to commission a full-blown orchestra to fulfill their sound, and it is realized beautifully here.

As far as Dimmu Borgir (the band) goes themselves, they are still at centerstage in the music. Many of these songs run in a similar fashion; with chugging guitars and thunderous drums rumbling in parallel with the orchestra. Bassist ICS Vortex even occasionally delivers some wonderfully dramatic clean singing here and there, an element of the band's sound that is far too scarce, in my opinion. Frontman Shagrath's vocals here are very distinctive from the average frostbitten howl, but his rasp feels a little underwhelming and cold, thanks in large part to the sense of overproduction that runs throughout the album. A clear sounding production can work without robbing black metal of its atmosphere or ferocity- look no farther than Watain for an example- but there is very little left to the imagination here.

For what the band may lack in atmosphere or ferocity however, they do make up for it in terms of their ambition and dramatic intensity. Without the added non-metal elements to 'Death Cult Armageddon', this would have been a barely decent work. Dimmu Borgir performs with skill here, but the true limelight is on Gaute Storaas and the Prague Philharmonic. Coupled with an interesting, albeit ridiculous packaging, 'Death Cult Armageddon' is an album I went into with dubious expectations, but I am finding myself now impressed by what they have done here.