I was listening again to
"Gateways" which is still one hell of a questionable song... like the entire album. Can't really imagine why they decided to put forward as a single the worst song in there, along with
"Chess With the Abyss", let's say. Despite I enjoy female vocals in extreme music, this chick (singer in the Norwegian band
Djerv) sounds weak, twisted, as if suffocating - could be only me, but that's what it is. Anyway, good thing she sings only on this one single song.
The whole record is really different from what we've heard from DB up 'till now - there are some clean male vocals here and there (Snowy Shaw?), trying to replace Vortex to no avail. Fine enough, but especially the lack of Mustis is really annoying from a compositional point of view, no matter that they tried to disguise it with tons and tons of symphonic arrangements and many choirs. It's their most sympho release by far, but the bad thing for me is that the aggression and that "eerie" feature is gone. It's like listening to Therion with extreme vocals rather than the typical blackish Dimmu Borgir effort. Still, there are several songs which make my day quite special -
"Dimmu Borgir" with the captivating "alchemic" spirited lyrics,
"Endings and Continuations" with the massive orchestral and choir usage, the more speed-up tempo in
"Ritualist", etc. Other than that,
"Born Treacherous" is not a bad opening choice along with the
"Xibir" intro which vaguely reminds me of
"Fear And Wonder" from "Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia" due to the classical direction. Not a bad album though, but I still can't manage to cope with the big difference between it and pretty much each of their past works. Maybe it's the ultimate record they could've released with Mustis and Vortex far behind their backs, but I really hope to hear something more solid and mostly convincing in their next album. It's difficult to even write a proper review for now despite the fact that I've been trying to focus on the music for quite some time already.
Which leaves me no choice other than to enjoy those tracks which got my attention and stubbornly try to get into the rest of the record - not such an easy task as it first seemed, alas.
Voices of the northern night, assemble...
Voices of the northern night, call to arms...
Summoned by secrets of sacrifice...