Dimmu Borgir - Eonian review
| Band: | Dimmu Borgir |
| Album: | Eonian |
| Style: | Symphonic black metal |
| Release date: | May 2018 |
01. The Unveiling
02. Interdimensional Summit
03. Ætheric
04. Council Of Wolves And Snakes
05. The Empyrean Phoenix
06. Lightbringer
07. I Am Sovereign
08. Archaic Correspondence
09. Alpha Aeon Omega
10. Rite Of Passage
This is just Nightwish with Emperor Palpatine on vocals.
Oof. I'm not the biggest Dimmu fan in the ice palace - more of a passive appreciator - but this is a rather dimmer Borgir than I remember. I recall them being bolder and brassier, possessing a powerful low end weighed down by both the metal and the symphonic elements - or, failing that, sufficiently threatening black metal at least. Eonian prances onto centerstage with the same fustian drama, but none of the imperious might and thunder, none of the vicious musical sorcery that made Dimmu Borgir cool. "The Unveiling" starts us off with a neat, windy riff that's likely to be stuck in my head for a while, but it also makes apparent that much of the metal edge has fled from Dimmu Borgir's ranks.
The lily-white strings, glistening piano, and mellow choir, a curiously frequent and intrusive presence, positively drip with decadence; clearly this is some thrust at gothic elegance, but the orchestrations sound lacey, saccharine, and bloated. Far from adding atmosphere and throwing weight and sophistication behind basically sound black metal, this new breed of symphonic affectation takes all the attention away from what little harshness remains in the Dimmu halls. Shagrath still sounds like a Nazgûl with a cold, which is great, but this "enchanted epic twilight symphony" sound gives me cavities, and the occasional blastbeat and diminished chord don't really change that. I miss ICS Vortex.
"Council Of Wolves And Snakes" breaks down some strange tribal groove that is at least conceptually enticing enough to stay interesting for five minutes, and the song contains some of the rare moments recognizable as wicked-riffed black metal; when it so chooses to be, "Alpha Aeon Omega" is a better Wintersun track than anything from The Forest Seasons, proving that the super-symphony saturation does not necessarily have to work to Dimmu's detriment. Even several of the stronger compositions, however, find themselves undercut by an obnoxious water-drip keyboard sound that makes me feel like I'm listening to some kind of dark new wave band or something, or perhaps a cheesy and thoroughly nonthreatening guitar tone that scrapes away most of the blackened feeling. Did I mention that I miss ICS Vortex?
Without a lyric sheet in front of me, I can't make out every detail of Eonian's high-falutin' concepts, but those passages that I am able to discern detract from the illusion of erudition, without fail. "Life is a trial and the passage is death"; "Losing yourself is the key to leave everything behind"; "To govern thyself, you must know your darkness"; is that? deep? I'm already annoyed by the sound of the choirs. I don't need to be irked by the things they're saying as well.
I give Dimmu Borgir credit for still being more interesting than your average symphonic metal band; there remains a certain expertise in songwriting, and some vestiges of old Dimmu do sneak through. I'd much rather be listening to this than Xandria or Within Temptation, but I can't shake the feeling that I'm listening to edgy covers of the Frozen soundtrack. Symphony is one heck of a drug, and it seems like in the eight years it took to make Eonian, Dimmu Borgir got too swept up in the frivolity and became self-indulgent.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 6 |
| Songwriting: | 6 |
| Originality: | 5 |
| Production: | 7 |
 | Written on 01.05.2018 by I'm the reviewer, and that means my opinion is correct. |
Rating:
5.8
5.8
|
Rating: 5.8 |
It took 8 years to release a new record. So it must be the feather in black metal music's cap; something to throw at a true black metaller's face. These are the things that initially come to anyone's mind, regardless of how successful Eonian is in making fans' desires come true. The record doesn't carry any instrumental track for a starter as a typical Dimmu Borgir thing, instead a shocking industrial intro and not comforting at all. "Interdimensional Summit", being the first song I listened to from this record, still stuck to Abrahadabra values. The keyboard theme is quite heartwarming and Galder's solo is one of the band's best. After that, "Council Of Wolves And Snakes" starts as something you may need in Dimmu Borgir's albums, but gets tedious and kills the buzz in the listener. Read more ›› |
Comments page 2 / 3
Comments: 62
Visited by: 643 users
| nikarg Staff Posts: 7053  |
I don't ever remember reading an unfavourable review of a big band on Metal Injection. Eonian is True Norwegian Black Metal? I'm going to bang my head against the wall and then laugh uncontrollably  
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6061  |
Written by nikarg on 07.05.2018 at 10:17 Well, they're from Norway. They started in the early 1990's and reached cult status by the end of that decade. They are a true Norwegian black metal band. No matter what they play now (which is still black metal, by the way).
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| SAY10 Posts: 113  |
Written by nikarg on 07.05.2018 at 10:17 It's Norwegian Black Metal for sure. True? Well depends on what that means. Dimmu Borgir is a band that hates labels in music, they said it many times. At least they are original, which is the point I disagree the most in this review. People may not like the music, and that is perfectly fine, but giving 5/10 to originality when there is no other album like this one (for better or worse, depends on personal tastes) it's not really fair.
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| nikarg Staff Posts: 7053 |
Guys please read again. I wrote: "Eonian is True Norwegian Black Metal?". I never said the band wasn't TNBM once upon a time. The review of Metal Injection is referring to the album being True Norwegian Black Metal. Eonian doesn't sound true at all to me and it definitely isn't black metal, at least the way I see black metal. It is Norwegian though, I don't doubt that. And I was never a DB fan anyway  @Daniell: I listened to the album twice. Couldn't do it a third time. Kudos to you for playing the thing back to back while running (another runner! yay!). But you are right when you say that people listen to albums just once and then just post their opinion on the internet. It's because there is so much music coming out every day and this music also comes out of a phone, tablet or pc. It's also free more or less. If people bought physical copies, they would give albums they didn't like after the first listen another chance, instead of bashing them at once. Fuck, I sound old.
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| tea[m]ster Au Pays Natal Contributor Posts: 5245  |
Never heard of the band. Starting point?
---- rekt
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6061 |
Written by tea[m]ster on 08.05.2018 at 03:45 Ha. Ha. Ha.
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6061 |
Written by nikarg on 08.05.2018 at 00:41 What's not true here? Do drums sound artificial? Is the singer a robot? Pardon the sarcasm, but in my opinion the idiotic expression "true black metal" is one of the most preposterous things in the whole metal world. Written by nikarg on 08.05.2018 at 00:41 Do you realize that you can say this about literally anything, ever? Let me give you some examples: Metallica's "Master of Puppets" isn't thrash metal, at least the way I see thrash metal. Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment" isn't literature, at least the way I see literature. Glenlivet isn't whisky, at least the way I see whisky. See my point?
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| nikarg Staff Posts: 7053 |
Written by Daniell on 08.05.2018 at 11:05 It's just a euphemism. I don't see why you get so wound up about it. No one takes it seriously in 2018. In the early '90s though, it had a meaning and using the term TNBM to describe Eonian is what's preposterous. Written by Daniell on 08.05.2018 at 11:05 Literally anything except universal truths. It's called an opinion. Eonian being black metal is not a universal truth. I stated an opinion, you disagree, fine.
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6061 |
Written by nikarg on 08.05.2018 at 16:04 I'm completely relaxed and wound up at all. If anyone takes the term seriously, it's you  Because it was you who commented on it in the first place.Written by nikarg on 08.05.2018 at 16:04 There are objective traits to be found in this album that qualify it as black metal. After all, all genres are defined by defining traits they inherently possess, e.g. tremolo picking and shrieking vocals in black metal.
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| Karlabos Meat and Potatos Posts: 5658  |
---- "Aah! The cat turned into a cat!" - Reimu Hakurei
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| tea[m]ster Au Pays Natal Contributor Posts: 5245 |
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| Karlabos Meat and Potatos Posts: 5658 |
Written by tea[m]ster on 09.05.2018 at 03:57 On the very unlikely case this is actually serious, I'm going to go ahead and ignore popularity opinion and recommend my personal favourite album: Death Cult Armageddon
---- "Aah! The cat turned into a cat!" - Reimu Hakurei
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| barnesy Posts: 133  |
I like going back to the Stone Age now and again. I'm gonna say though; best riff of 2018= Aetheric.
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| nikarg Staff Posts: 7053 |
Written by tea[m]ster on 09.05.2018 at 03:57 Stormblåst (the 1996 one of course) or Enthrone Darkness Triumphant.
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| IBlackened Posts: 477  |
Written by Daniell on 08.05.2018 at 11:05 You may not like the term (it holds no value for me either), but anyone familiar with Black Metal history knows what it means. This album sounds nothing like early 2nd wave Norwegian Black Metal bands and it's also not a pure Black Metal record, with so many elements not associated with the genre at that time. So yes, saying Eonian is True Norwegian Black Metal makes no sense and is misleading, unless he's referring to "Black Metal-influenced albums released by Norwegian bands", but that's not what it originally meant. It's like calling In Flames "True Swedish Death Metal" to put them in the same group as Entombed or Dismember. Written by Daniell on 08.05.2018 at 16:18 Definitely, but the album is not comprised of those traits alone. There are a lot of non-Black Metal elements here, definitely enough to also label it as Symphonic Metal, and that's where it gets debatable. It's not 100% Black Metal (or Symphonic), and some people may not see it as just a Black Metal (or Symphonic) record because of that, just like Black/Death, Black/Doom, Death/Doom, Deathgrind etc. I see it as mix of both, neither one nor the other.
---- Their old stuff is better.
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| LeKiwi High Fist Prog Posts: 4038  |
Written by barnesy on 09.05.2018 at 09:04 Listen to "Black Crow On A Tombstone" by Satyricon
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6061 |
Written by IBlackened on 09.05.2018 at 21:09 I see your point. But look at "In The Nightside Eclipse". It has craploads of keyboards all over it, but I've never seen anyone call this album Symphonic Metal. Moreover, I'm pretty sure most of fans would classify it as "true black metal"...
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| Trojanman190 Posts: 27 |
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| IBlackened Posts: 477 |
Written by Daniell on 10.05.2018 at 09:42 I think it boils down to the balance between Black and Symphonic metal. Just like with Death/Doom, which a lot of times means "doom with growls" and not an actual mix of Death and Doom, most of the symphonic elements from ITNE are just basic synth lines following the guitars. It's more like Black metal with keyboards than a fusion of Black and Symphonic metal. If you remove the synths, there's still a Black metal record there, just like Limbonic Art first albums. But in Eonian's case, Black metal is almost secondary sometimes. But that's just my opinion.
---- Their old stuff is better.
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6061 |
Written by IBlackened on 10.05.2018 at 21:35 Again, I see your point. And I'm not really disagreeing with you. All I'm trying to say is that genre definitions are blurry. Besides, lots of people hate on Dimmu Borgir (I don't mean you) because it's in vogue, so to speak. Rarely do these people really listen to Eonian, they just go with the flow, because it's "cool" to bash the band online. All that said, I'm done listening to the album. At some point it seemed to me that it would turn out to be much better than I thought, but ultimately that is not the case. It's a solid album, but not worth more than a 7.
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| SAY10 Posts: 113 |
Written by Trojanman190 on 10.05.2018 at 21:07 It's been over a week listening to this album every single day, and I'm yet to find a single thing that can be compared to Nightwish.
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6061 |
Written by SAY10 on 12.05.2018 at 17:31 Keyboards in "Interdimensional Summit" do bring Nightwish to mind. But that's about it.
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| MétalNoir Fils du Lys Posts: 847  |
Written by Daniell on 14.05.2018 at 14:40 Exactly my thought. The album as a whole is not as "over-symphonic" as I had expected. Keyboards and choirs make for most of the symphonic elements. Except for the annoying "water-drip" keyboard that's on almost every track, I actually enjoy the album. It would be unfair and not objective at all to say it's too symphonic and not metal enough, since there are awesome riffs and blastbeats in there, which is a step up from Abrahadabra.
---- Notre destinée n'est pas encore tracée....
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| Absinthe Posts: 31  |
Written by Karlabos on 09.05.2018 at 04:55 Damn, I regret not getting here earlier in order to circumvent that guy looking up Death Cult Armageddon as his first taste of Dimmu Borgir (if indeed, it's a genuine request - which it obviously isn't). The greatest Dimmu album is Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia. By some distance. It's followed by Enthrone Darkness Triumphant and then Spiritual Black Dimensions. Urgh, Death Cult is such a lame album by comparison. As for Stormblast and For All Tid, those are silly little wannabe albums that even today are overrated. Stack them up against the giants of that era, like Emperor and Burzum, and they're tosh. As for this review, it's always foolhardy to have a non-fan review a Dimmu Borgir album. They're just one of those bands that turn people off, so with the reviewer admitting - to his credit - that he isn't really a fan, we know that there is no chance this album was going to get past a 7/10 maximum. That's the odd thing about metal reviews. Everyone has their preferences and turn-offs, meaning that individual reviews like these are virtually meaningless. This review is good as a talking point, but it's not helpful for people who are interested in Dimmu Borgir and want to know how it stands up to the back catalogue or offers something new etc. This review is just a regular metal fan saying he isn't all that into the band. I get it, but it's hardly insightful.
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| flammeimwind333 Posts: 15 |
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| IBlackened Posts: 477 |
Written by Absinthe on 18.05.2018 at 11:34 If he's not a fan, and according to you that makes his review worthless, why do you care about the rating? Even if he gave 10 to Eonian, it wouldn't matter, right?
---- Their old stuff is better.
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6061 |
Written by Absinthe on 18.05.2018 at 11:34 Oh, I didn't know that only fans can write reviews.
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| Dean0495 Posts: 49  |
Written by SAY10 on 06.05.2018 at 18:30 Point isn't if this album is more in Epica, Nightwish or Therion style, we don't have to go in so much details which bands it reminds us, but point is it's more less typical symphonic black metal they used to & for us, Black Metal listeners this album reminds above mentioned bands which we usually do not listen and they sound same to us, even if they aren't. That's it. Speaking about review, I agree with author, well said, just unlike him I didn't give this album more than 4 points.
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| Liafev Posts: 591  |
Written by Dean0495 on 24.07.2018 at 15:15 I guess the point is, the album is criticised for being what it is, but the reviewer does't seem to actually really know what it is. Doesn't make much sense to me. I don't go review stuff I don't understand and say they are bad, I either try to get it or leave it alone. I think I'll never understand people who bash an artist for trying something new. I strongly believe Eonian is good. It's just made for the
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306  |
Written by Liafev on 08.12.2020 at 17:57 You think this album is targeted at black metal purists?
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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