Dødheimsgard - 666 International (1999)^{Release ID: 1695}

I liked this. It was kinda weird. I'd never listened to  Dodheimsgard before this and so I had to do my research while I was listening to find this was thier first foray into industrial/avant-garde type music while being only black metal before this, and while I have not at this point listened to their earlier stuff, I'm going to guess that was a good move. I am quite the enjoyer of what what some may call 'noise' music and so this had enough elements of that to tickle my fancy. While some songs went on a bit long ( and could have had a greater impact i think slightly shorter) Shiva Interfere, Carpet Bombing, and Completion were all lovely listens and with my research the glazing of  thier most recent album by others online, Black Medium Current,  landed it on my list to check out to see if they further developed thier industrial sound that they delved into on this album here. While many songs may seem disjointed both sonically and theme ( my husband asked my multiple times if I was listening to the same album from across the room throughout not believeing I was as it kept shifting so drastically if that is any indication of the tonal changes) - I really like that kind of change up and will check out more of thiei work to see if they polished this (lack of) formula.

I perhaps don't enjoy "666 International" quite as much as I did when Ben first brought my attention to it fifteen years ago. I'd describe it as being an avant-garde industrial black metal release that combines the industrial black metal sound of Thorns with the avant-garde metal of Ved Buens Ende.... & throws in a little Aborym for good measure. It's certainly a very interesting record that perennially keeps you on your toes but it's also a flawed one in many ways. You see, there are just so many ideas floating around but not all of them work from a compositional sense with the outcome sounding noticeably pieced together from widely disparate parts. It also sounds to me like an intentional attempt to sound weird rather than a natural creative evolution. The black metal components are unsurprisingly my favourite sections while a couple of the piano interludes representing the weaker moments. The vocals of Thorns/Zyklon-B front man Aldrahn are certainly pretty psychotic but he also overdoes it a little bit at times & comes off like a raving madman. The production is a little inconsistent with the guitar sound being pretty thin & the electronic drums sitting further back in the mix than I would normally like with an industrial metal release. I do really enjoy the gothic rock influences though & would have liked Dødheimsgard to have explored those a little further. My favourite tracks are opener "Shiva-Interfere", the blackened "Sonar Bliss", the lovely piano interlude "Magic" & the gothic rock hidden track but none reach classic status which leaves me with a middling score overall &, even while I generally find myself enjoying the album, I can also see why I haven't felt the need to return to "666 International" or explore Dødheimsgard's subsequent material over the last decade or so.