‘Lay down your souls to the gods rock ‘n roll’
Celebrating a blackened legacy, thirty years in the business our Norwegian cousins Dimmu Borgir present an album of cover versions, whose murky tendrils seek out your jaded heart, envelope your ragged carcass and settle down merrily in your infernal soul.
We kick things off with Venom, kings of the descriptive word to present the unholy, unscathed and unruffled by the norms, for them ‘Black Metal’ runs deeper than an ocean, it harbours characteristics that are unique, and it is on the outskirts of ‘polite society’ that they reside and evolve.
Bathory are up next with the painfully exquisite ‘Satan My Master’ a harbinger of devilry, an affliction which hurtles along at great speed clocking up 2.15, tearing through your shell and exposing your weaknesses. The ‘Nocturnal Fear’ is aggravated and inflamed further as Celtic Frost are included in this catalogue of chaos. A frozen and barren landscape that is unhindered by the world, suspended in its own icy glory.
Under the watchful gaze of their fearless leader Shagrath, the keeper and minister of the dark fortresses, Dimmu Borgir have thrived and survived, they sit in majesty, while we observe their reign of darkness.
We ‘Burn In Hell’ alongside Twisted Sister and we rejoice when we Accept that our ‘Metal Heart’ is full and teeming with pride for the history and legacy our heroes have given us.
An album that showcases a genre that is popular amongst a certain section of the metal community, wild, free of inhibitions and supersonic in its delivery, and definitely worthy of your attention.
Stare into the vantablack, see no soul, see no reflection, heed only the charred words of mystery and wisdom and succumb to the profane inspiration. Happy New Year everyone.
Azra Pathan
Dimmu Borgir – Inspiratio Profanus out now