Band:	Dimension Zero
Album:	Silent Night Fever
Style:	Gothenburg metal
Release date:	May 14, 2002
Guest review by:	GamlaSonn

01. Silent Night Fever
02. The Murder-Inn
03. Through The Virgin Sky
04. Your Darkest Hour
05. Not Even Dead
06. They Are Waiting To Take Us
07. Until You Die
08. End
09. Slow Silence
10. Helter Skelter [The Beatles cover] [Asian bonus]

As a side-project of Jesper Strömblad (In Flames) and his then-bandmate Glenn Ljungström, Dimension Zero is also very much Güthenberg metal. Silent Night Fever, their debut album, is probably very near the definition of melodic death metal. It has unforgiving machine gun-like drumming, raspy death growls vocals like delivered from a ghoul, typical death and thrash metal riffs, but of course also very melodic parts.

As a Güthenberg trademark, DZ also have a guitar duo supplementing each other in conjuring distorted guitar riffs. This duo is represented by the originally In Flames members. Hans Nilsson, a drummer who by no means lacks experience in the Swedish metal community, contributes with relentless drumming and has a massive contribution to the brutality of the album. Joakim Göthberg, ex. Marduk vocalist, delivers the raspy high-pitched death growls.

The album starts of with the self-titled track and immediately sets the intensity standard. Even at the chorus it doesn't get any calmer, it just gets more intense. With a suiting pause at the 2-minute mark, you get time to catch a break, before the song again picks up a chainsaw and finishes you off. The second track "The Murder-Inn" starts off with a chugging death metal riff and with Jocke (Joakim) growling for you too wake the fuck up and enjoy the massacre. When the chorus hits in shortly after the riffage turns a bit more melodic, casually seducing you to 'follow me into a murder-inn', which you gladly do of course. Jocke keeps you with company with thrown in shrieks here and there and it really adds power and evilness to the song. Likewise the previous song, at the 2-minute mark you can enjoy a short break from the killing.

Then we have reached the third track, "Through the Virgin Sky", and again we are greeted with Jocke's devastating shrieks (that is so awesome, why doesn't everyone do that? Yes, I'm serious!). DZ keeps the same formula here and keeps it intense all the way through. At the chorus everything becomes much more melodic, but only then. At the 2 and a half minutes a calmer, build-up appears, only to be breached with Jocke's wonderful shriek.

Not much else to report in "Not Even Dead", "They Are Waiting To Take Us" or "Until You Die", actual singing occurred in the chorus of "Until You Die", otherwise they all pretty much follow the same pattern.

Track number 8, "End", is really not interesting until the melodic interlude at the 2-minute mark. The last track "Slow Silence" is the standout track here and it's just ambient with a simple rhythm and occasional talking/screaming in the background.

So we have come to an end to the journey through Silent Night Fever. They've thoroughly used a formula, bringing together brutality and catchy hooks, but I might add that they executed it with great confidence. For people, like myself, who enjoy their share of brutal melodeath, I'm stoked about this, but even so, I do believe a bigger variety wouldn't have hurt. Overall, the album is fairly solid, with the majority of the songs in one way or another interesting and memorable. In my opinion this is one of the best brutal melodic death metal albums out there (not as in a new genre, but I really don't want to compare this with, say, Amon Amarth or EVEN In Flames. I like both, but they're not nearly as intense).