Dissection (SWE) - Maha Kali (2004)^{Release ID: 331}

How to shatter the expectations of thousands of metal fans in six sugary minutes!

The wait was finally going to be over! After the disappointment of finding out that Dissection were going to be having a lengthy hiatus due to guitarist and vocalist Jon Nödtveidt being imprisoned for murder, fans of the band had waited impatiently for seven long years. During that time, snippets of information would come our way, suggesting that Jon had every intention of continuing Dissection’s bloody reign immediately after his release. When the day finally arrived in autumn of 2004, Jon did appear to be fulfilling his promise, and had begun the process of rebuilding the band. Davide Totaro (AKA Sethlans Teitan), known for his work with Aborym and Unanimated, was chosen as the second guitarist, while Tomas Asklund from Dark Funeral and Dawn would take on drumming duties. It doesn’t appear that an official bassist was added to the band at this time, with Brice Leclercq from Nightrage acting as a session musician for the time being. These guys set about rehearsing and trying to bring the vision that Jon had spent the last few years planning to fruition. What the result would be was anyone’s guess, but there was no doubt that Jon had something seriously evil and brutal in mind. At least, that’s what he told us!

Reading the interviews that Jon conducted after his release is a humorous experience to say the least. Like a man possessed, he spouted proclamations that Dissection were going to be stronger than ever. “Dissection will return on the full grand scale! What we were in the past is nothing compared to what we will become! Dissection will return, ravage, conquer, dominate and take what is ours! We want blood and our hunger is insatiable! For too long the unworthy have thrived! Bathing in the blood of the unworthy, Dissection will celebrate total victory. Expect no mercy! The coming dark aeon is ours!” is one example of the sort of chest beating the anti-cosmic Satanist was performing, but my personal favourite has to be “Dissection shall burn the scene of today to ashes! We will bring Chaos to the world! We shall initiate the darkest epoch in music-history and open the gates to the coming dark aeon! There shall be no escape!” I may not have been completely convinced at the time, but I couldn’t help but get excited that one of the great black metal bands was preparing something so obviously blasphemous and destructive. On November the 10th 2004, I and the rest of the Dissection army finally got to experience the first example of this newly formed force of darkness.

From the very first seconds of the Maha Kali EP, it was clearly apparent that something was very, very wrong. After expecting a torrent of freezing cold melodic black metal, we were instead being subjected to a horrible In Flames style riff with stupefyingly simplistic drumming. Thousands of metal fans around the world shook their heads in disbelief as Maha Kali shattered their expectations in six minutes of spongy melodic death metal. By the time the female vocals kicked in and a pleasantly melodic solo broke up the catchy repetitive chorus, I for one was wildly pinching myself in an attempt to wake up from this horrifying nightmare. The re-recording of Unhallowed was the only other thing on offer, and that at least gave us all hope that the title track was just some sort of anomaly, but even this version of a classic track lacked the biting edge that was prevalent in the band’s early work. In hindsight, I guess Maha Kali isn’t completely disastrous. The title tune is unquestionably (perhaps annoyingly) catchy and there’s nothing technically wrong with anything the band did with it. The real issue is that this is just not Dissection, and it’s a perfect example of when a new band name should have been utilised rather than pissing off a whole legion of well established fans in one foul swoop.