Only fluff and no actual stuff. Sound complementing orchestrations now take main role in albums sound. Black metal is gone and only thing which remained is orchestral filler. It just sucks they decided to go this lazy and "safe" way. See you again in 10 years or whatever.

The symphonics in Dimmu Borgir stopped feeling organic and complementary to other musical elements on In Sorte Diaboli. That album and everything afterwards has a forced use of symphonic elements; the choirs on Eonian are just extra layers, they give nothing in terms of atmosphere and how they are interwoven with the compositions. And with the overall gradual mellowing of the harsher, black metal elements, one is left with that overly-sugary-fluff sound. Pair it with the unexplicable insisting on black metal aesthetics (why is this a thing?), the overall result is below average. For what Dimmu used to represent, at least.

And as someone who has listened to Nightwish a fair bit, they do not sound like them, especially not on their recent releases. Nightwish always uses orchestra to complement their backbone sound, DB has stopped doing that a few albums ago. Say what you want about the style of music that Nightwish plays, but their use of symphonic elements has always been the best in the game (after old era Therion, at least). All of their albums after and including Once have a consistently meticulous, intelligent and uniform use of orchestra and choir. Helps that the same orchestra arranger (Pip Williams) and the same actual orchestra is present on all four of those albums. Also, all of Nightwish orchestra-only bonus discs can very much stand by themselves.

The cover art for Eonian is gorgeous, though, I'll give them that.

Hmmm...

...the best symphonic metal of the year

I like Eonian.

It is almost the same as Abrahadabra, but with more symphonic elements and chorus performances. In general, it is obviously a lightening of the music with the idea of a wider audience probably.
I can not say I am delighted. I'm just going to get more to Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia, Enthrone Darkness Triumphant and In Sorte Diaboli instead of to Eonian.

This record focuses more on the symphonic parts than on being heavy. This is the lightest/most melodic I have ever heard this band at. It is still an impressive record at the end of the day.

I will not rate this album right now, better listen to it some more times. So far so very average : most melodies are uninspired and keep repeating until the song ends, the cheesy keyboard kills everything and make it sound like a debut album and it seems that Shagrath has taken a part-time job with this release !

This used to be one of the few types of black metal I enjoyed. Because I found the symphonic stuff to make it easier to listen to. But the last couple of years I've grown more fond of black metal so I'm curious if I will like this one. Going to give this a try one of these days.

Extremely disappointing. We had to wait 8 years for this... thing. Poppy song structure. Riffs that blend together create songs that blend together. Incredebly cheesy arrangements and cliches. Boring, uninspired, I'm unable to listen to any song in its entirety despite multiple tries. They don't even have an orchestra to cover shit up this time. Orchestral arrangements sound plastic and cheap and they were probably made with a synth. What the hell happened to them?

The album is good and bad. Equal to Judas Priest - Firepower. But at least they didn't released pure shits like maiden did with their book of creeps or slayer with their idiotic repentless. Those were safe albums
This was like
Hell, let's do something out of the box. Kinda like what Judas Priest did with Nostradamus with keyboards (that album is their best album in their history because of those amazing keyboards). However. I really really hope for Dimmu's next album to become more industrial. A Rammstein-ish sound. That would be incredibly perfect.
And black metal bands are Taake, Dark Funeral, Gorgoroth, Marduk, Hate, Belphegor. Dimmu never were black metal.

Written by Vorreide on 05.05.2018 at 21:29

Have splitted feelings about this album unfortunately, to me It basically sounds like what the boss battle music in the Dark Souls games would be if it went metal XD
Nevertheless it's a good album \m/

It's not even close to 'main menu track' from my beloved DS 3

I'm changing my mind about this album, it's not that bad.

Written by flammeimwind333 on 10.05.2018 at 18:46

And black metal bands are Taake, Dark Funeral, Gorgoroth, Marduk, Hate, Belphegor. Dimmu never were black metal.

Come on.

After listening to it yesterday and again today, I feel like it's fine. Nothing that immediately grabbed my attention but also nothing that I really disliked. Now I'm not really familiar with the previous work of Dimmu Borgir so I can't really compare this album to it, but I can't really say I was blown away by this album. Occasionally there is a nice riff but not enough imo to really get engaged. Also I feel like there is maybe a bit of overreliance on the symphonic stuff. Symphonic elements can be a nice extra touch but it doesn't hide a lack of original riffs.

Overall it works better as background music for me rather than an album that I would sit down for and try to experience.

This album is by no means that bad. It´s true that the symphonic elements are very strong, but still it´s a good effort. My first impression was that it sucked, but it got better after 3 or 4 listens. I like it more than Abrahadabra, actually, it´s quite darker. The score is probably between 7 or 8, I think.

Dimmu Borgir from Bad to Bad

Written by Daniell on 14.05.2018 at 11:51

Written by flammeimwind333 on 10.05.2018 at 18:46

And black metal bands are Taake, Dark Funeral, Gorgoroth, Marduk, Hate, Belphegor. Dimmu never were black metal.

Come on.

they never were pure black metal and in my opinion I am liking and hating Eonian. Liking because it is an epic album. Hating it because ffs Dimmu were better than being a Therionesque band

Written by flammeimwind333 on 25.05.2018 at 01:05

they never were pure black metal and in my opinion I am liking and hating Eonian. Liking because it is an epic album. Hating it because ffs Dimmu were better than being a Therionesque band

Yeah. "Pure", "true", the same shit. People stick labels on bands and then use those misplaced labels as yardsticks against which to measure bands' worth. If I were to nitpick, I'd tell you that Hate aren't "pure" black metal either.

Really, all those discussions about "true black metal" are stupid and pointless

Written by Dean0495 on 25.05.2018 at 13:00

Sounds more like Nightwish style, but done not properly.

it is not Nightwish for fucks sake. THERION
you really don't listen to Nightwish do you? They have fucking folk elements, Where the fuck do you see folk in Eonian?

Written by Daniell on 25.05.2018 at 10:09

Written by flammeimwind333 on 25.05.2018 at 01:05

they never were pure black metal and in my opinion I am liking and hating Eonian. Liking because it is an epic album. Hating it because ffs Dimmu were better than being a Therionesque band

Yeah. "Pure", "true", the same shit. People stick labels on bands and then use those misplaced labels as yardsticks against which to measure bands' worth. If I were to nitpick, I'd tell you that Hate aren't "pure" black metal either.

Really, all those discussions about "true black metal" are stupid and pointless

How about Cradle of Filth?

I am now running away as fast and as far as I can!

Written by Polaria on 26.05.2018 at 21:59

How about Cradle of Filth?

What about them?

I liked it. The choir parts were a little much at times, but they didn't bug me enough to hate it.

Written by Daniell on 26.05.2018 at 23:10

Written by Polaria on 26.05.2018 at 21:59

How about Cradle of Filth?

What about them?

My bad, I thought this conversation between you and flammeimwind333 dated back from 1998, not 2018. /s

I am just finding conversations about who's "truest black metal" also stupid and pointless entertaining, and I was hoping to throw some oil on the fire.

Written by Polaria on 27.05.2018 at 08:52

I am just finding conversations about who's "truest black metal" also stupid and pointless entertaining, and I was hoping to throw some oil on the fire.

In my opinion, the only true black metal artist is Elton John. All the rest are posers.

Written by Polaria on 27.05.2018 at 08:52

I am just finding conversations about who's "truest black metal" also stupid and pointless entertaining, and I was hoping to throw some oil on the fire.

Apparently you must've been under the impression that I was defending Dimmu Borgir as "true black metal". I don't care at all what genre a band plays, as long as their music is good.
And I always find it amusing when people say that a band isn't "true [insert genre here]"

Written by Daniell on 28.05.2018 at 15:16

Apparently you must've been under the impression that I was defending Dimmu Borgir as "true black metal".

Nope, I just replied to the last post related to the conversation to avoid a new reply branch. I do not really care about genres, they're only useful as general pointers.

Even now with a few more painful spins it's really hard to get something outstanding out of this album. It's a complete mix of elements that don't fit together : cheesy keyboards, orchestrations, some industrial touches, other tribal... Think it took them so long to write the album that they totally forgot what they wanted to do in the first place. It will only make me want to listen to their older and better albums.

^can't agree more. Made the effort to check it out, and the whole thing feels so messed up and inconsistent. I can find something (mildly) interesting on some songs but those parts never last and get lost within a ton of infinished ideas, often mediocre. A short riff, maybe a brief bridge here and there, but overall no substance. Feels like the previous album with just slabs of randomness thrown over. Ya know, the watered-down overproduced extreme music and all that. But Abrahahahadabra at least had a song or two that I could thoroughly enjoy.... Here, there is nothing.

Haven't ever enjoyed a Dimmu album that much since Death Cult. Feel like I'm 18 again...

Very surprised at the tepid reaction to this album and I'm amazed that anyone could rate Abrahadabra higher!

For me, Abrahadabra was Dimmu's worst album for many reasons that I won't go into here!

Personally, after getting over the disappointment that Eonian was not PEM II (never going to happen is it! ) and giving it a number of spins on a decent sound system, I can't see how anyone could rate this poorly. The band have repeatedly stated that the album needs time to sink in and I have to agree. Upon first listen, there was nothing that instantly grabbed the attention and there was a lack of memorable riffs. There is still an element of truth to these observations but after time the depth, detail and maturity to the songs is now obvious and there are some genuinely beautiful moments with a powerful production. Personally love the choir, adding majesty at times, most notably in 'Archaic Correspondence'. I concede that Dimmu have lost the raw aggression and sinister undercurrent of the PEM era, hurt by a softer guitar tone and watered down production of blast beats, but they now make up for it with almost movie score levels of symphonic overload...

From 'The Empyrean Phoenix' onwards in particular, the tracks are fantastic

It's somewhere between an 8 and 9 for me and their best since DCA - which surprised me as much as anyone as I feared Abrahadabra was the start of the Dimmu decline...