If you ask me what’s the biggest Black Metal Band Today, I would quickly answer, Dimmu Borgir. The Norwegian band was formed in 1993 by Shagrath, Silenoz, and Tjodalv. After a numerous changes in line-up over the years, guitarist Silenoz and Vocalist Shagrath are the only founding members left. For more information on Dimmu Borgir biography, see here.
I like all Dimmu Borgir songs and many of them are my favorit. It’s kind of hard to choose which song is better than other song. Here’s my list of Dimmu Borgir 10 Best Songs, no particular order because I like them all.
Tormentor of Christian Soul
I consider this as one of Dimmu Borgir’s classic hits. The song starts with hyper drum style and lasting for a few bars of intro which lasting more than 1 minute. It continues with old school metal riffs where we can still feel the breath of Punk Rock style of drumming and guitar phrase. The only difference is the keyboard sound, typically Dimmu Borgir keyboard sound in the entire album, Enthrone Darkness Triumphant. The bar repeated at the end of the song, this time with a blasting double kick of Black Metal drum style. In Indonesia, the lyric is banned from the album cover.
Spellbound by The Devil
Still from Enthrone Darkness Triumphant. This song uses short, quick changing phrase with different tempos and drum style. The keyboard opens with male choir sound and continues throughout the song, where it changes at the ending verse, with middle tempo and sweet melody played on guitar.
Mourning Palace
This song only use a few riffs, but all of them are meaningfull. No useless riff here. The tempo is middle. It flows with melodic-rythm keyboard while the guitars doing chord block. Double kick drum used partially in some parts to keep the song up to beat. I like to play this song on stage because it draws audience to do a mass headbang.
A Succubus in Rapture
A soft opening with string-piano will make people think this is a slow rock song. Then the heavy distorted guitar comes in with Speed Metal style of rythm. Drums are a bit relaxing in this song. Piano solo in the middle of the song is so sweet, followed by harmonic guitar melody before it comes to solo and then, dual guitars melody.
Metal Heart
Classical composition in Black Metal? This is the song. The base rythm still have Rock n’ Roll soul in it. That’s how they combine Metal with Classic and Rock n’ Roll into one great song. The song only have a few riffs repeated with a tiny cut on the end of the bars, which sometimes make people ‘surprised’. The great part starts with a real guitar solo without accompaniment for more than 8 bars and then… it’s Fur Elise! Really feels great to hear Fur Elise on a heavy distorted guitar rythm.
In Death Embrace
Almost 1 minute intro in middle tempo with double kick drum and palm muting guitars will satisfy your thirst for headbanging. Keyboard play a major part to make this sounds like a techno music with simple, fast arpeggios using piano sound. In the middle of the song, the tempo drops drastically, creating a hypnotizing atmosphere.
Kings of The Carnaval Creation
This is one of the masterpiece. Complex composition with many different tempo and so many riffs changing. Lot of variation in double kick drum, synchronized with guitars palm muting. 10 second clean guitar riff used as a perfect turnaround to change tempo and beat of the song. Listen to the gregorian vocals at the end part, it’s amazing. Guitar solo show that Slow Rock guitarists are not the only one who can make sweet melodies. I like to watch the Live video of this song. Dimmu played very energetic.
The Serpentine Offering
Epic! That’s what I call this song. Dimmu Borgir shows their creation of great music composition ability. From the beginning of the song we can imagine a war zone, a battlefield. I can see warriors yield their sword to triumphant. Keyboard played a great part in creating this battlefield atmosphere and it’s a great success. The video clip take the theme of Holy War, but I prefer to hear the song without watching the video. I like to enjoy this song with eyes closed and let my mind played it’s own picture of battlefield.
The Sacrilegious Scorn
This one…. is amazing! The riffs in each part of the song are perfect and the parts are flowing smoothly. Guitar riffs are back to it’s simplest, to make it blend better. Sometimes a complicated riff could reduce the harmony of a song. The video receive a lot of protest from Christian community though, because of ‘The Last Supper’ scene.
Progenies of The Great Apocalypse
When I heard this song for the first time, I stunned. I almost can’t described what’s in this song that make it sounds so … majestic. Like sitting in a theatre and watching a tragedy drama. Using middle tempo, guitar rythm are as simple as it can, basic palm muting riffs combined with the drum kick to create a blasting metal sound.
There are still many amazing songs by Dimmu Borgir and there will be more. Waiting their new album now.
Sources :
Personal Experience as a fan and Musician.
Wikipedia
