Review by Daniel for 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.