Band:	Dimmu Borgir
Album:	Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia
Style:	Symphonic black metal
Release date:	2001
Guest review by:	TheH2K

Disc I
01. Fear And Wonder
02. Blessings Upon The Throne Of Tyranny
03. Kings Of The Carnival Creation
04. Hybrid Stigmata - The Apostasy
05. Architecture Of A Genocidal Nature
06. Puritania
07. IndoctriNation
08. The Maelstrom Mephisto
09. Absolute Sole Right
10. Sympozium
11. Perfection Or Vanity

Disc II [Korean Edition bonus]
01. Devil's Path [re-recorded version]
02. Burn In Hell [Twisted Sister cover]

At first I aimed to write an article about this record but I thought it would get so musically technical as this album has a lot to say, so I just want to transform it to a review and say why this record is a flawless performance.

Dimmu Borgir is commonly accepted for being one of the giants of the genre; some critics would argue about their musical alteration or one would say they are not as extreme as they should be these days. Others would say after Mustis and ICS Vortex departed, they haven't had the essence anymore. But a band cannot satisfy all the listeners equally; they had to move on at some point.

Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia is neither a pure Scandinavian black metal record nor completely mainstream mediocrity, and maybe this would be one of its lucky streaks. Tjodalv and Nagash had left the band due to their own projects and Stian Aarstad was removed from the line-up in 97. As a result, in the late 90s, the linchpin of this melodic black metal band was gone. Nevertheless, new blood was injected to the band as Mustis, ICS Vortex, Nicholas Barker and Galder teamed up with the band.

I wouldn't give such credit to Spiritual Black Dimensions because it is still something between the second (1997-1999) and the third (1999-2009) wave of Dimmu Borgir and was bewildered in characteristic terms. Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia is replete with drum complexities, full of blasting beats as we can hear in "Blessing Upon The Throne of Tyranny" and "Indoctrination", massive double kicking in "Kings Of The Carnival Creation", "Puritania", "Sympozium" and other tracks, and full of tom-tom drum passages; Nick Barker handles all of them at the utmost level.

Unlike Nagash, ICS Vortex's bass lines cannot be heard much. Conversely, guitar riffs are so well-written, dynamic and really trailblazing. Keyboard lines are among the best in history of metal. Being so advanced and melodic, it gives the listener the experience of different euphonious and harmonic atmospheres. This is the first time for Dimmu Borgir that, beside synths, we have some orchestral instruments like violin, viola, double bass and cello. These are most prominently found in tracks 1, 6, 10 and 11. Lastly, Vortex's clean vocal parts are much better organized than on the previous record and more epic.

Lots of tracks of this record, especially "Blessing Upon The Throne Of Tyranny", "Architecture Of Genocidal Nature", "Kings Of The Carnival Creation", "Indoctrination" and so many others, change their main theme several times; we have seen such things in previous Dimmu Borgir albums, but this time, the level of this technique is to the highest point possible. "Burn In Hell" was a good idea for a cover song as long as they had Vortex. "Perfection Or Vanity" cannot be described through words; just go and listen to how harmonic a song can be, a salad of symphonic instruments.

The first time that I checked the lyrics, it seemed quite shocking to me, not because of the content but because of the English level and vocabulary range.

The production is clear as a bell; all the instruments are well-mixed and it seems they got rid of that low-quality, splashy sound from their previous record (Spiritual Black Dimensions).

In many albums, we have some great ideas and some fillers to wrap up the package. To my amazement, even this record's fillers (tracks 5-8-9) are full of great riffs and ideas.

There is a lot more to say, and each song is a musical book to read. I'm a bit strict and I wouldn't give a 10 to an album, but this record is an 11, and if somebody tells me what my favorite album of all time is, the first thing that comes to my mind is this record.