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GOTH METAL |
| STORY TIME | FANBOY | HORROR MOVIES | CONVENTION NEWS | HORRIBLE NEWS |
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Gothic Black Metal? An interesting idea if you can pull it off. A year ago while stomping through one of my local Metal stores looking for fresh blood, the guy behind the counter started raving about this great band called CRADLE OF FILTH. His pitch was enough to convince me to buy the album. Man but it stunk. The music, words, everything. Bereft of bass sounds, the drums sounded like someone going tippy-tap on the plastic lids of coffee cans. The guitarists sounded like they were trying to play so fast that their fingers were getting tangled in their strings. The lead singer sounded like a girl - but wasn't. The album seemed to be mixed entirely in treble and was unforgivably dull. I listened to it on my computer system, on my home stereo, and finally on my car audio system. Nothing could save it. It was shit. I wish someone had told me about Sweden's Death Metal band DIMMU BORGIR instead. With the overwhelming number of bands out there it sometimes takes forever to finally listen to a band that may have been around for awhile. I've heard them now though, and I am going to buy their entire damn catalogue. That's right! They are DAMN good! DIMMU BORGIR are what I had expected from the highly hyped but pathetically worthless CRADLE OF FILTH: CRUELTY AND THE BEAST. I'm sitting here right now, playing DIMMU BORGIR and listening, yet again, to the extraordinarily atmospheric "Reptile". With keyboards by Mustis and drums by Tjoldave in front of the guitars, and weaving an amazing strength of brutality and dreamy interludes, this is an incredible piece. There is such a smooth flow from hardcore speed to slow tempos here. This is the kind of stuff that Mussorsky would convey if he were alive today. Most Black Metal bands just want to pound you into the ground, which can be cool, butDIMMU BORGIR draws you into a aural world of nightmares that are both enticing and threatening. The next version of QUAKE would do well to have these guys writing the background music, and a return to storyline gameplay is something that the QUAKE franchise sorely needs. I'm now listening to "Behind The Curtains Of Night-Phantasmagoria". Keyboards ever present give the whole album an atmospheric gothic feel - and rightly so. Track 3 is "Dreamside Dominions" and here the guitars of Astennu, Silenoz, and the bass guitar of Nagash (now gone from the band with well wishes from all concerned) come to the fore. This is probably the most powerful song on an album loaded with powerful music. Silenoz and Nagash wrote most of the songs for SPIRITUAL BLACK DIMENSIONS, which will make Nagash's parting missed. Never the less, with incredibly strong vocals by Shagrath, this is an album that splits heads. Pay attention to Shagrath's vocals. Next time you hear others do these gutter-growl style of vocals, recall how many times the singer the grumbled air through his mouth without bothering to even use his vocal cords. Then listen to Shagrath sing and realize just how much raw real voice he is giving to every damn song. This guy must have pipes of steel, man! If I attempted to do that my vocal cords would be torn raw from their moorings and hang out of my mouth like exhausted, beaten worms. DIMMU BORGIR: SPIRITUAL BLACK DIMENSIONS is one of the best albums of 1999 and deserves to be around forever. 5 Perplex Skulls
This review copyright 2000 E.C.McMullen Jr. |
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