The Symphonic Black Metal Thread
So for this weekend's top ten list I decided to compile my Top Ten Symphonic Black Metal Releases of All Time. See what you think.
01. Emperor – “In The Nightside Eclipse” (1994)
02. Emperor – “Live Inferno” (2009)
03. Emperor – “Anthems To The Welkin At Disk” (1997)
04. Cradle Of Filth – “V Empire or Dark Faerytales in Phallustein” E.P. (1996)
05. Emperor – “Reverence” E.P. (1997)
06. Cradle Of Filth – “Dusk… & Her Embrace” (1996)
07. Dimmu Borgir – “Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia” (2001)
08. Dimmu Borgir – “Death Cult Armageddon” (2003)
09. Samael – “Passage” (1996)
10. Dimmu Borgir – “Spiritual Black Dimensions” (1999)
I must admit to struggling with most symphonic black metal, with the obvious exception of Emperor. Wonder why they were so much better at it than everyone else? Great to see you have Live Inferno rated so highly, Daniel. It is one of the all-time great metal live albums in my opinion. I would have to echo your top three, so here's my somewhat limited top ten, bearing in mind there is a massive drop-off from #3 to #4:
01. Emperor – “In The Nightside Eclipse” (1994)
02. Emperor – “Live Inferno” (2009)
03. Emperor – “Anthems To The Welkin At Disk” (1997)
04. Caladan Brood - "Echoes of Battle" (2013)
05. Emperor - "IX Equilibrium" (1999)
06. Cradle of Filth - "Middian" (2000)
07. Mist of Misery - "Temple of Stilled Voices EP" (2014)
08. Abhor - "Occulta religiO" (2018)
09. Samael - "Passage" (1996)
10. Sigh - "Hangman's Hymn" (2007)
Yes, I'm in complete agreement with you there Sonny. Emperor were absolutely miles ahead of the rest. I also struggle with the subgenre most of the time too.
I'm fascinated to see Caladan Brood at number 4 and yet no Summoning. Is it a matter of the apprentice surpassing the master in your opinion? I haven't heard of Mist of Misery, so prob should check it out.
I make sure to include at least one symphonic black metal track in every North playlist, and not just because it should be represented. I've always been a sucker for it when it's done well. That said, I agree that Emperor have yet to be bettered.
I'm fascinated to see Caladan Brood at number 4 and yet no Summoning. Is it a matter of the apprentice surpassing the master in your opinion? I haven't heard of Mist of Misery, so prob should check it out.
I make sure to include at least one symphonic black metal track in every North playlist, and not just because it should be represented. I've always been a sucker for it when it's done well. That said, I agree that Emperor have yet to be bettered.
Yes, I think it is Ben. Summoning just feel so OTT to me that they rub me up the wrong way. In all fairness I have only listened to a couple of albums for this reason, so they may have produced a classic I haven't heard.
Symphonic black metal is perfectly valid for inclusion in the North playlists as itseems to be quite a popular sub-genre, it just isn't one I personally enjoy massively. It is a great mystery why Emperor were so much better than all the rest though.
Does anyone else know of a sub-genre where one band so far outclasses all the competition or are Emperor a one-off?
Abigail Williams - In the Shadow of a Thousand Suns
Genre: Symphonic Black Metal
This debut album is basically what would happen if a bunch of metalheads discovered real extremities for the first time, decided that Born of Osiris was just as good as Emperor, and then thought they would be the coolest thing on Earth if they decided to mash the two. Well, they didn't end up the coolest thing on Earth, but it's not that bad of a debut.
The most important thing to keep in mind are the veterans these guys got to help with the album, notable a couple of metal veterans: Emperor drummer Tryn, and metal producer James Murphy. High grade celebs. The worst thing to keep in mind is the constant deathcore-infusion, which the symphonics can't quite drown out. The writing itself is pretty good, going into a lot of complex and unpredictable parts while maintaining a constant vibe. But with the album always switching between another blast beat, violins and the bare essentials that symphonic black metal needs, it pretty much becomes 46 minutes of the same thing; it's variations of the same song that gradually get less original and slightly worse overtime. Now this doesn't mean the album eventually sucks. In fact, the first two songs: The World Beyond and Acolytes, are actually very good. Acolytes is almost incredible in a way, largely due to a keen awareness of what extreme metal needs to sound like. Obviously, we have our two veterans to thank for that. But eventually, the album bears the same originality as any Fleshgod Apocalypse album. Thankfully, there's one shining example of great writing on side B: Empyrean. That song really carries some of the Emperor spirit and is one of the heavier tracks. I might even say it's my favorite song on that album.
So, starts of great, finishes decent, has instances of brilliance. Stays brutally heavy throughout, and beautifully produced.
82/100
https://metalinjection.net/news/zoe-federoff-posts-her-contract-with-cradle-of-filth-details-how-little-she-was-paid
Wow! Not a great look for Dani Filth & management.
https://metalinjection.net/news/zoe-federoff-posts-her-contract-with-cradle-of-filth-details-how-little-she-was-paid
Wow! Not a great look for Dani Filth & management.
All that + a collaboration with Ed Sheeran = zero credibility.
Parnassus - "In doloriam gloria" (1995)
Ben picked this debut album up on CD back at around the time of release & seemed to like it quite a bit from memory. I traditionally used to struggle with it though so I haven't returned to it since but I thought I'd give it another chance to impress me this week. Parnassus was a one-man solo project from a Swedish gentleman going by the name of Fredrik Söderlund who you may also know as one half of martial industrial act Puissance. "In doloriam gloria" sees him presenting us with a clear musical direction that's built around some fairly unintimidating & positive sounding keyboards that have been consciously brought right to the front of the mix with the lightning-fast, tremolo-picked guitars & continuous bombardment of high-velocity (not to mention quite repetitive) drum-machine blast-beats being left at the back & sounding pretty thin for the most part. The atmosphere is undeniably centred around fantasy with that Lord of the Rings style feel being pretty easy to buy into. Personally, I find most of this to be far too high on lightweight melodies for my taste so I only really find myself enjoying a couple of the eight tracks on offer, namely the half-decent "Void of All Desires" & the hypnotic instrumental interlude "Cum trist issimo dolore". The rest of the tracklisting is more or less none of my business but I'd be overstating things to call it low quality. It's just designed for a fairly niche audience that I'm not associated with so, on this occasion, I'm gonna have to leave Ben to galivant around his bedroom in his Parnassus undies all on his lonesome (not that I'd ever consider joining him in that undertaking anyway because... let's face it... I don't have a plastic Viking sword & helmet worthy of the exercise). After my initial experiences with this debut, I steered well clear of Söderlund's 1997 sophomore album "Let the Stars Fall & the Kingdom Come" so I have no idea how it compares with "In doloriam gloria".
For fans of Dies Irae, Eldrig & Tartaros.
3/5
Dimmu Borgir - "Enthrone Darkness Triumphant" (1997)
I have to admit that I hated the first couple of albums from Norway's Dimmu Borgir when I first encountered them during my mid-90's trade trading days & nothing has changed much in that respect. The experience left me feeling far less than enthused about continuing to follow the band through their creative evolution, however I believe it was Ben that alerted me to the drastic change of musical direction with their third full-length "Enthrone Darkness Triumphant" & it tempted me back to see what the fuss was about. I wouldn't say that my initial listens saw my interest doing a swift u-turn as I still found myself struggling to connect with the band's brand-new & significantly more symphonic approach, however I certainly found it to be more palatable than the clumsy, incompetence of records like "For all tid" (1.5/5) or "Stormblåst" (2/5). It's only now though, that I've realised what my main issue with "Enthrone Darkness Triumphant" was & started to finally come around to its charms.
Whereas Dimmu Borgir's early releases took an intentionally lo-fi & primitive approach to melodic black metal, "Enthrone Darkness Triumphant" is an altogether different beast, this time going for a huge symphonic sound full of gothic romanticism & grandeur. The lineup had changed a little with bassist Brynjard Tristan (Old Man's Child) being replaced by Nagash (The Kovenant/Troll/Carpe Tenebrum/Chrome Division/Covenant) while the other core members who recorded Dimmu Borgir's 1994 "Inn i evighetens mørke" debut E.P. were all still present. The prestigious Peter Tägtgren (Hypocrisy/Pain/Bloodbath/Lindemann/Lock Up/The Abyss/War) would be charged with engineering & mixing the album & had begun to make a name for himself as a talented producer over the previous 4 or 5 years. This would appear to have been a good decision as he certainly played a role in presenting Dimmu Borgir as a more exciting yet also more accessible option for extreme metal fans.
Upon revisiting "Enthrone Darkness Triumphant" for the first time in decades this week, I was immediately challenged in the same way that I was back in the day, only this time I feel that my increased patience allowed me to overcome an obvious failing that had previously tainted my vision of the overall album. You see, "Embrace Darkness Triumphant" begins with the three tracks that contain by far the most challenges for my personal taste & it had previously been hard to overlook them when assessing the holistic package. It's only with several repeat listens that I've come to this realisation & discovered that the remainder of the record is really pretty decent. The use of Stian Aarstad's keyboards in those earlier songs tends to veer into overblown & cheesy spaces while there is a lot more brutality & substance to the other seven songs, particularly the blast-tastic "Relinquishment of Spirit & Flesh" which very quickly drags things back out of the abyss after the disappointment of the opening trio & is easily my pick of the bunch. All of the remaining tracks are worth hearing although none of them quite reach essential status, generally being let down by a weaker section here or there. It's hardly surprising that the general consensus seems to be the complete reverse of my position on the tracklisting as I'm simply not the target audience for a record like this one.
The vocals of front man Shagrath (Chrome Division/Fimbulwinter/Nocturnal Breed/Ov Hell/Ulver) are a highlight along with the more frenzied drums parts of Tjodalv (Abyssic/Susperia/Old Man's Child) while the riffs of rhythm guitarist Erkekjetter Silenoz (Insidious Disease/Nocturnal Breed) often draw upon the influence of symphonic black metal godfathers Emperor during their stronger moments. Those keyboards rarely reach a level where I find them to be more than tolerable however they don't often leap over the borderline into theatrical shenanigans outside of those first few tracks, generally staying within spaces that I can at least deem to be acceptable even if I would prefer that they weren't there at all a lot of the time.
There's no doubt at all that "Embrace Darkness Triumphant" was Dimmu Borgir's best release to the time & took their careers to an entirely new level. For me though, their finest hour would not come until the early 2000's with records like "Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia" & "Death Cult Armageddon" when they'd toned down the theatrics a bit. It's easy to see how some of your more elitist black metal fans might claim Dimmu Borgir as "gateway" act off the back of a release like this one but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I mean, we all needed an entry point & it doesn't immediately mean that Dimmu Borgir are entirely bad. They're not, They're just not the same animal as your Mayhems or Marduks.
For fans of Old Man's Child, Cradle of Filth & Carach Angren.
3.5/5
Here's my updated Top Ten Symphonic Black Metal Releases of All Time list:
01. Emperor - "In the Nightside Eclipse" (1994)
02. Emperor - "Live Inferno" (2009)
03. Emperor - "Live at Wacken Open Air 2006 - a Night of Emperial Wrath" (2009)
04. Emperor - "Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk" (1997)
05. Cradle of Filth - "V Empire or Dark Faerytales in Phallustein" (1996)
06. Emperor - "Reverence" E.P. (1997)
07. Cradle of Filth - "Dusk... & Her Embrace" (1996)
08. Dimmu Borgir - "Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia" (2001)
09. Dimmu Borgir - "Death Cult Armageddon" (2003)
10. Samael - "Passage" (1996)