Band:	Dark Funeral
Album:	Diabolis Interium
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	September 24, 2001
A review by:	Sephiroth

01. The Arrival Of Satan's Empire
02. Hail Murder
03. Goddess Of Sodomy
04. Diabolis Interium
05. An Apprentice Of Satan
06. Thus I Have Spoken
07. Armageddon Finally Comes
08. Heart Of Ice
09. The Trial [King Diamond cover] [Japanese bonus]
10. Dead Skin Mask [Slayer cover] [Japanese bonus]
11. Remember The Fallen [Sodom cover] [Japanese bonus]
12. Pagan Fears [Mayhem cover] [Japanese bonus]

Lord Ahriman and his team consider themselves one of the last "true black metal band". Today to define Black Metal as a genre is quite hard, because of the slight differences between the stiles and the band's "philosophy". If Black Metal is satanist, full of reversed crosses and goat sacrificing, Dark Funeral are Black Metal; if it means misanthropy, no live shows, and an harsh production, they are not.
But I hate these sub-classifications. There are two kinds of music: bad music and good music. Well DF play the second one.
If we must use a category, we can define their music (using Ahriman's own words) "Hyper Speed Black Metal". It fits well.

The usual characteristic of the swedish band has remanined unalterated, they follow not the traditional Noewegian path, but they are a high-speed war machine, without (except for "Goddess of Sodomy", an excepion in their songwiting) breaks.
For their third full length album they turned themselves once again to the sound-God Peter Tagtarten, and his Abyss Studios. So, as you can immagine, the sound is perfectly clean and it allows us to distinguish the unhuman partitures of the neo-entered drummer Matte Modine (ex-Defleshed?and you can hear it!) which is a locomotive of incredible precision, almost always in double bass. Emperor Magus Caligula's voice too has never been this clear and we can bow down again at his feet once again for the incredible things that this man can do with his voice: pure screams of pain. Surely one of the best Black Metal voices now. Ahriman's and Dominion's guitars are perfect too: glacial as they have to be, but melodic at the same time. It all fuses into a melody of evil that accompanies the tipical DF lyrics, all written by Caligula; "Satanism is a way of life" says Ahriman "and it would be hard for me to work with people who don't share my belief". Well, he has founded the perfect partner in Caligula, go and read to the most satanic lyrics ever made by DF. "Hell lord, unholy father. Your wish is my comand. I will cut the liar throat; Christian blood will fall to the ground" Just one thing?.. Diabolis Interium means nothing in ancient Latin?.(remember they are swedish:)

So a good songwriting mixed with incredible speed makes this album the best Dark Funeral record at the moment and a "must have" for all balck metal fans, but also for those who likes good music.