Band:	Dimmu Borgir
Album:	In Sorte Diaboli
Style:	Symphonic black metal
Release date:	April 27, 2007
Guest review by:	Ekim Reklaw

Disc I
01. The Serpentine Offering
02. The Chosen Legacy
03. The Conspiracy Unfolds
04. The Ancestral Fever [European bonus]
05. The Sacrilegious Scorn
06. The Fallen Arise
07. The Heretic Hammer [North American bonus]
08. The Sinister Awakening
09. The Fundamental Alienation
10. The Invaluable Darkness
11. The Foreshadowing Furnace
12. Black Metal [Venom cover] [Japanese bonus]

Disc II [DVD]
01. The Serpentine Offering [video]
02. Making Of The Album With Dimmu Borgir (Studio Report)
03. Making Of "The Serpentine Offering"
+ Photogallery

Dimmu Borgir made quite the accomplishment with the album, In Sorte Diaboli. This 2007 release to me is one of their best, if not the best. In Sorte Diaboli (ISD) was the very first Dimmu Borgir album I bought, but it was also the very first black metal, or for you technical people out there, symphonic black metal albums that I bought.

Unlike many of their other albums, there seems to be more of a "common" sound structure. With previous albums it seemed to be about heavy and fast drums, bass, and guitar. Those elements have not been eliminated though, the band still adds those but adds the choruses and the harmonies that are not common with most black metal albums.

The production on this album was put together very well. Sadly this was the last album that the famous producer Fredrik Nordstrom worked with Dimm Borgir on. To me, there wasn't necessarily a "low point" on any part of the album. Every song struck me as a strong, independent track. The composition of the tracks as well as the performance of the tracks was no less than amazing. The first track (single) off this album that I heard was "The Chosen Legacy". When I first heard it, I was still just learning about the whole black metal genre, but this track seemed intriguing, for a lack of a better term.

Unlike many black metal singers, Shagrath has the ability to get that necessary shriek/growl in there, but still makes his lyrics understandable. That is a quality that I have loved about him from the get go. Along with all of the other tracks and singles on this album, they all follow the concept very well. For those of you that don't know, the concept is all about a medieval priest discovering that there is a "new path" so to speak as far as religion and as a way to think. The lyrical content strongly shows the "left handed path" that the priest took after making his discovery.

With concept albums, everything from the sound and lyrics, down to the artwork and presentation of the whole ordeal is important. The band more than successfully accomplished this. Something that occurs more than not, in the current music "era" that we are in, musicians don't create a concept to go with their album. Usually the songs are just thrown together whether they are related or not. Despite that fact, Dimmu Borgir was able to get around that, and still do something that everyone loves, a good story.

However, I shall digress. The album as a whole, to me is a great starting point for everyone when getting into black metal. Many fans of the genre may consider Dimmu Borgir to be "sellout black metal" or nothing like the true Norwegian black metal bands such as the (in)famous Mayhem and Gorgoroth. That is their problem, I recommend this album, along with this band, to all heavy metal listeners. For those that are searching for something heavy, I have just given you the key to the door, now unlock it, and walk into the unknown that is black metal.