Abrahadabra by Dimmu Borgir (2010)

Hello, lads, we're up to another daily. Today we will continue with another album from Norway, wich is black metal and also has controversity around it, and that's Abrahadabra, by Dimmu Borgir, their latest album! Now, I definetly don't think Dimmu needs an introduction but still, I'll make one... Dimmu Borgir is a band from Norway wich originally started as a black metal band, but quickly evolutioned into a more high fidelity, melodic black metal, wich guys at wikipedia name "Symphonic Black Metal", it might be true at some context, but still, we'll just call them black metal for the time being, now, after the transformation Dimmu was always around controversity, and not because it's a black metal bands and all of the black metal bands have controversy, but because classic black metal fans acuse them for not being black metal and for being posers... anyways, Dimmu Borgir has written really incredible songs during it's time until now, this is their first album in 10 years...I think, or something around that... that doesen't features the vocals of I.C.S. Vortex, wich was also a part of our last episode... This album also doesen't features Mustis, but Shagrath, the band's frontman and former drummer on the keyboards. Let's go on and do it!

Xibir - the first song, it's a pretty short one, 2:50. It starts pretty nice and dark, with many symphonic elements in it, as the members said: it will focused more on the symphonic elements than the latest albums... It is a pretty great instrumental, the only thing that does bothers me is that it isn't longer...

We move on to Born Treacherous, 5:02... I'll start with the bad parts... I don't like the quality, all the instruments seem to bash into the years, especially if you listen it with headphones. The guitars also seem pretty dull with no really great riff, but they help at some moments with the atmosphere...but nothing special. Now the synth parts, are very, very strong, it's the reason to listen this song, most of the parts will blow you away, the vocal patterns aren't really good but at some moments they go well with the synth, not an incredible song, but it might not bore you.

Third track, Gateways, sees a pretty notable improve, it's 5:10 long and the riffs actually are pretty good, we even get to hear some lead-ish riffs. This song features the frontwoman from Djerv, Agnete Kjølsrud, wich does a pretty good job on her parts. All around it's a good song, we get to listem to some blastbeating and as usual, great synth parts, Shagrath doesen't has the exact same style as Mustis, and... I prefer Mustis, but it's just an opinion, Shagrath did AWSOME!

Chess with the Abyss! Four minutes and eight seconds (4:08)! The best song in the album, the riffs are genius and the drums go so well with them. The synth parts are a beat weaker in volume and intensity but that is perfect as it let's the other instruments be the big part. The vocals are really great, both the patterns and the lyrics! Really powerful and great all-around song!

It took them 9 albums, but they finally did a self-titled song, 5:35. Pretty nice song, pretty predominant synth, I wished a Dimmu Borgir self-titled would be more profound, and not just basically "let's spit in the face of our former members, especially Vortex and Mustis!"... Nothing much about it really...

Ritualist, 5:13 - The second best song on the album, I'd say, it seems like a mix of great creations where each member, every instrument, has a "landmark moment" in wich it's incredibly awsome, except the synth wich is awsome the whole song long. This is the first song of the album where I think the vocal patterns are intresting, when I first listened through the album I thought that Shagrath put way more effort in his synth parts than in his singing, and I still think that... Kind of a dissapointment because he could just hire a keyboardist to concentrate on his first priority duties, wich are the vocals.

The Demiurge Molecule (5:16) takes us through an odd journey as the first half of the song is dull and repetitive but after Shagrath shows his talent on the synth, the song becomes somewhat more intresting.

The ninth song, Renewal - 4:11. Finally we get to hear something heavy, the beggining is really darn good, actually the most powerful song part we have yet to hear from the album and even with a guitar solo! I don't like the heavy usage of lyrics repetition in this album, if it wouldn't apear in nearly every freaking damn song, I wouldn't mind it... but man... Anyways, Shagrath done a pleasing job with the vocals, but yet again what comes dominating is the synth. I have the sensation that the song becomes less heavy as Shagrath starts to sing.

Endings and Continuations, 5:58, is a pretty dark song, one of the three songs I like from the album, it's dark but still very powerful, and finally some old school Shagrath singing, something to keep you from being bored with the vocals. At around two minutes and half, there is a really nice part where Shagrath mixes his voice with the choir, really nice and powerful, this song also features the vocal talents of Garm, he did pretty good, altough Vortex would have done better, it's always a pleasure to listen to Garm. At around four minutes and about ten seconds there's again that voice mixing between Shagrath and the choir, awsome! At the end both Garm and Shagrath sing, but Garm is really muted, I don't like this, no sir... The song ends with the word "Abrahadabra", the album's name... remembering us what we are listening to.

Finally, I have to say, I would think twice before buying it, give it a try on YouTube or something, I think neither "old" or "new" Dimmu Borgir fans will be very pleased with this album. Here's three of the songs of the album:

Gateways: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jfon11JIRg (With the Video)

Chess with the Abyss: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-pHh3_HnY4

Endings and Continuations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cI22ptvSRc