DISSECTION — The Somberlain (review)

Album · 1993 · Melodic Black Metal

4/5 · 2017-07-29
UMUR

"The Somberlain" is the debut full-length studio album by Swedish black/death metal act Dissection. The album was released through No Fashion Records in December 1993. Along with acts like Unanimated and Necrophobic, Dissection are widely considered among the most prolific Swedish blackened death metal/melodic black metal acts from the 90s.

The music on the album treads the fine line between melodic black metal and blackened death metal. The vocals are mostly raspy and belong in black metal territory, while the riffing style is a bit of both worlds with both fast tremolo picking and more brutal riff based sections. Always layered with ultra melodic lead guitar work though. Often with folk influenced themes. Occasional use of keyboards help bring an epic atmosphere to the album and the classical inspired acoustic guitar interludes that appear a couple of times on the album, work well as breathers. The album is drenched in a melancholic atmosphere, but still quite aggressive and raw.

The musicianship are generally on a high level, although drummer Ole Öhman at times has a clumsy playing style that could have been a bit more imaginative. The classical acoustic guitar interludes played by John Zwetsloot also feature a couple of playing errors, but it´s not a major deal, and the rest of the music is very well played.

The sound production is powerful and suits the music well. Again it´s a feature on the album that sits in the borderland between black and death metal. Too high end sounding to be a "regular" death metal production from those days, and too "low end" to sound like a contemporary black metal release. No matter how you describe it, it´s a suiting production for the music, and that´s what probably matters to most people.

"The Somberlain" is overall a high quality debut release by Dissection, and right off the bat, they spearheaded the Swedish melodic black/blackened death metal scene. While the other artists I mentioned above are also quite prolific in their own right, Dissection has a cult following that those two and other similar size acts can only dream of, and it´s obvious to hear why when you listen to "The Somberlain". It´s simply more convincing on all parameters than most other contemporary releases in the same style and a 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

more than 2 years ago
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UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Well...honestly they are not my personal poison either, but that doesn´t mean I can´t hear that they are something speciel...at least to my ears :-)

siLLy puPPy wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Yeah, it's not the death metal aspects. I love Darkthrone's first album, Behemoth and other blackened death mixes. I just wasn't blown away by Dissection and don't understand why they are so highly revered. Not that its bad or anything but nothing OMG outstanding either

Vim Fuego wrote:

more than 2 years ago

With the amount of praise this band and album used to get, I thought I was missing something, because I couldn't really get into it either.

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Well I generally don´t enjoy Black metal (with exceptions), but I enjoy Dissection...maybe because they have as many death metal elements as Black metal elements in their music.

siLLy puPPy wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Although i love almost all styles of black metal, i could never get into Dissection. I'm not even sure why. I'll have to check em out again and see if that's changed