Review by Saxy S for Dimmu Borgir - Grand Serpent Rising (2026)

The long running Norwegian black metal band, Dimmu Borgir, have made a habit of writing and releasing high quality, powerful music. And Grand Serpent Rising is no exception. When the music hits and this album begins its "Ascent", it travels far and wide at a blistering pace. The guitar riffing is filled with energy and intent, the bass lines are super strong and give the rest of the instruments room to breathe, the percussion work is superb, borrowing from the classic black metal of old, while also having room for some ear splitting moments as well (i.e. "Repository of Divine Transmutation"). The symphonic backgrounds are also splendid; parts of this album have little callbacks to the great Emperor and the dynamic influence the symphony plays on Prometheus. 

That's all the good stuff. Unfortunately, while Dimmu Borgir keep their songwriting chops in top form, they've also kept their piss poor structure for an album in the same shape. I've like Dimmu Borgir albums before, and I can point out individual songs from Puritanical Euphoric Misantrhopia, or Enthrone Darkness Triumphant, and Abrahadabra that stand out, but you won't catch me listening to any of those albums in full anytime soon. This band has consistently pumped out overbloated albums for over three decades and it seems like with Grand Serpent Rising, that trend is getting worse! This is not helped at all by the bands always on full speed aggression that they continue to pump out album after album. It's hard to deny the quality of the music found within this album, but songs like "Recognizant" and "Repository of Divine Transmission" could have been so much better if, either the songs themselves had been trimmed down, or the album as a whole.

Best Songs: As Seen in the Unseen, Silk Minnes en Alkymist, The Exonerated, Shadows of a Thousand Perecptions

For Fans Of: Septicflesh, Rotting Christ, Enslaved