Dimmu Borgir - Enthrone Darkness Triumphant (1997)^{Release ID: 5511}

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.

Dimmu Borgir is a much more accessible black metal band than most, so they're probably a very good starting point for exploring black metal in general.  In their best albums, there isn't as strong of a blackened atmosphere as most black metal albums, and their melodies are a bit poppier.  But I haven't heard anyone complain about Dimmu Borgir the way metalheads have done when other bands from other extreme genres end up sounding too "poppy," and maybe this is because Dimmu Borgir maintains a dense sound loaded with gothic energy and textures.  I've even heard that they're one of the highest selling black metal bands in the world.

While the symphonic / melodic / gothic combo prominent in Enthrone Darkness Triumphant is maintained as a constant with minimal variation through the album, the accessibility of the album is lived up to due to the melodic strengths and clever production.  There isn't a single part of it that's not balanced perfectly between catchiness and darkness.  This was different from a much more revered symphonic black album, Emperor's Anthems to the Welkins at Dusk, in the sense that it was more about having fun than it was about developing a style.  And they had done that beautifully, keeping things entertaining and somewhat mystical along the way.  While riffs and extreme technicalities are absent, overall, the catchiness and mystical vibes are almost addicting.  And since the songs are typically between 4 and 6 minutes, it's a miracle than none of them feel too long because they kept on delivering various kinds of catchy and mystical ideas as opposed to be guitar wankers.

I suppose many imitators these days may end up beating this album at its own game with some extra creativity, and part of the reason I'm such an Emperor fan is because of what was done on Welkins.  But I won't deny that every time I hear this album, which is rare, I have fun with it.  They make it easy to get invested in the mystical moods without drawing away from black metal tremelo textures.  The two go together perfectly on this album, and in my opinion, an excellent sense of melody definitely justified the fanbase, historical status and the high sales for a black metal album.

90

Chalk me up for entry into the folder marked "Don't get the fuss around Dimmu Borgir" and file me neatly away in the back of the filing cabinet.  Perhaps this is too harsh a statement to open my review with as Enthrone Darkness Triumphant isn't terrible.  You can't deny the high drama levels that are akin to soap opera proportions of theatre, nor can you ignore the effort the band puts into their art form.  Musically, their 1997 release is hi-octane and bursting with passionate energy for the medium they espouse.

My problem is that upon reflection it is more or less all the same for the whole album.  Grim vocals, spreading a sense of despair and menace at the same time, are perhaps the highlight of the album for me, most certainly the standout part.  The rest of the experience just feels like a very excitable gallop into symphonic territory that whilst in essence works there's never an opportunity to absorb or digest much of anything by dropping pace a little.

I have no issue with relentless delivery of an album in the main but I still need something to latch onto to keep me interested and hooked.  Unfortunately here, despite not falling into the "throw every idea we have at the songwriting" trap, the album feels like it suffers from this regardless.  Working my way through all ten tracks there is definitely some structure to more or less all of the tracks but it feels somehow too hidden.

The memorability factor therefore is significantly diminished to the point of me almost getting bored, which is ridiculous given my acknowledgement of the energy levels present.  I just feel things need to be paired back a little to let the individual parts of the music breathe more freely and allow their impact to be more obvious and better appreciated.

Haunting Hopelessness 

Well this was a ride I don't know why I never got to. Dimmu Borgir was my first black metal act. As I have mentioned elsewhere Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia was my first black metal album. After listening to CoF, I had an urge to listen to PEM again and it still held up in my opinion then noticed Enthrone Darkness Triumphant was next on my list and was looking forward to it. Wow, what a change in direction in 4 years that these albums had. PEM took away the more symphonic elements and went more straight black metal leaving out a bit of the melody this one had.

I've listened to everything that Dimmu Borgir has put out since Puritanical and was always a fan. Now, it's been a few years so I will definitely be going back to them but I need to listen to their early stuff first because I am very impressed. The melodies and atmosphere they put in this is amazing. This is cathedral black metal during a blizzard at night. The instrumentation fits so well, the keyboard and even organ work (even if just using a keyboard's organ tone) does so well I don't understand why more acts don't do this. Beautiful. I don't believe they're trying to scare anyone with this like other acts do, but I'm not sure what they're going for because it's still cold. 

A sensation of helplessness, as if your body is already frozen but fear has left you and you're at the acceptance stage to let death wash over you to take you away.  That's my description. You want to die at peace but you are being tormented by the cold. The sweeping keys are almost uplifting at points while the guitars and drum work pummel you into a coma unrelenting to let you drift away. Dimmu Borgir has done an amazing job here and looking forward to anything else they put out and going back through their discography and finding so much more to love.