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