Band:	Dimmu Borgir
Album:	Enthrone Darkness Triumphant
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	May 30, 1997
Guest review by:	Windrider

01. Mourning Palace
02. Spellbound (By The Devil)
03. In Death's Embrace
04. Relinquishment Of Spirit And Flesh
05. The Night Masquerade
06. Tormentor Of Christian Souls
07. Entrance
08. Master Of Disharmony
09. Prudence's Fall
10. A Succubus In Rapture
11. Raabjørn Speiler Draugheimens Skodde [bonus]

This album is called the greatest work of Dimmu Borgir, the high point in their career, but also the last to contain the norsk black metal style. Indeed it is a very good album, but nevertheless it is already nothing of black metal any more. Enthrone Darkness Triumphant was the first step into the direction of Cradle Of Filth, this can clearly be heard in the new production and songwriting style. But to keep unique in a way, Dimmu Borgir decided to fill the gap between black and symphonic with synth sounds. If you compare this album to their former effort Stormblåst, it is hard to believe that you listen to the same band with only one year difference.

Well, let's see how the new style expressed in Enthrone Darkness Triumphant during the 56 minutes this album has. We have great tracks in here, some legendary and well known by all the metalheads, and we have songs that sound like they try too hard to be something special. The opener, "Mourning Palace," obviously counts among the famous and excellent songs and is indeed a very special one. The next two songs are of the same brilliance without doubt and "Spellbound (By The Devil)" contains an awesome and yet quite catchy chorus that is one of the greatest ever written by Dimmu Borgir. Unfortunately, the whole mixture of speed, synth, and this special sound loses steam and after the first three songs the downfall starts, over-produced and blasting around with no sense; Shagrath sounds like he would cut off his hands to get a voice like Dani Filth. It goes on like this until "Entrance," which definitely marks a point of new originality. But it only remains a point, the next two songs are of the same bloody blindness as the ones before. In "Master Of Disharmony," Shagrath again wants so hard to be Dani Filth, and it really would fit better to it if he was. I have never thought his vocals were anything special, since on this release they are pretty much all the same, he only takes more spoken parts from album to album. In Stormblåst he had a bunch of awesome moments where he sounds like a demon. In the end, the last song is also the last highlight on this album and very remarkable.

I guess I am one of the fans who want the Stormblåst-Dimmu back, because Stormblåst is really one of the greatest black (!) metal records of all time. Dimmu Borgir have unfortunately never again released anything like "Alt Lys Er Svunnet Hen" or "Da Den Kristne Satte Livet Til." To conclude, we have five fantastic songs and five average ones. For adding a new version of "Raabjørn Speiler Draugheimens Skodde," which is together with the Stormblåst songs the best ever written by Dimmu Borgir, I give it a little bonus.