It was kind of difficult for me to make this post. I reckon I'd rate at least 80% of my collection a 6/10 or higher, and a lot of the albums I own that are kinda shoddy are there simply there purely for collection purposes, i.e. to complete a discography. Also, I'd say I actually like a fair few universally-panned albums more than the average listener. Some examples - I don't hate Van Halen III. I actually like that record, and I always have! I agree that Metallica's St. Anger is not a good album, but I don't hate it! A lot of people don't like Black Sabbath's Forbidden either - well, I learnt to like it even before the awesome 2024 remix came out! Iron Maiden's Virtual XI... Judas Priest's Demolition... Anthrax's Volume 8... I kinda like all of these too! But as I started going through my collection, I did manage to find some albums I don't like that aren't in there just to complete a discography. It's entirely subjective of course; some of these picks aren't even considered universally bad and I totally get why some people may like them, they're just not to my tastes. This is not necessarily a list of the WORST albums in my collection - just a list of some albums in my collection that I DISLIKE after all! All of these are 4/10s or lower for me. I definitely have more, but right now I can't think of them.
BLUE OYSTER CULT - Cult Classic (1994)
I love Blue Oyster Cult, but why they decided to re-record a whole bunch of their own classic tunes is baffling. There was nothing wrong with the original versions in the first place; I don't think any of the albums those songs originally came from suffer from any real production issues, and the new versions of songs like 'Godzilla', '(Don't Fear) The Reaper', 'Astronomy', 'Burning for You' do absolutely nothing to improve on them. It's not that this album is horrible to listen to - they're re-recordings of pretty excellent songs after all. It's an album that should never have been made in the first place, that's why it's on this list.
DEF LEPPARD - X (2002)
The Def Leppard catalogue is spotty to say the least (in my opinion of course). The first 4 albums are brilliant and I never tire of them. The last couple of albums were solid too (2015's Def Leppard and 2022's Diamond Star Halos), and I even think Slang deserves far more credit than it gets. But there's a handful of albums in this discography that have always left a sour taste in my mouth - and 2002's X is by far the biggest example of this. The pop/rock ratio of this album must be about 80/20, it's so fucking safe and lightweight that it's hard to believe this is the same band responsible for recording the NWOBHM classics On Through the Night and High 'n' Dry!! You know how Joe Elliott absolutely hates any of Def Leppard's association with heavy metal/hard rock? Well X is like his dream finally coming true! He finally achieved his vision for Def Leppard with this album! Well done Joe.
MACHINE HEAD - Supercharger (2001)
I think Machine Head do have their share of genuinely good albums. Hell, I even agree that Burn My Eyes is a classic (although I don't consider it to be a masterwork like some fans do). But Robb Flynn is also prone to jumping on whatever metal bandwagon is popular at any given time, writing absolutely terrible lyrics and generally just responsible for Machine Head's overall inconsistency as a band. 1999's The Burning Red was a huge downgrade from The More Things Change..., and 2001's Supercharger is a complete mess of nu metal cringe, awful rapped vocals and the god-awful song 'American High', which I've always considered to be one of the worst "metal" songs of all time. I re-reviewed their catalogue last year, and I was genuinely hoping I'd be a bit kinder about this one in my older age, but it's only gotten worse. Total piece of crap; they snapped out of it with their next release, 2003's Through the Ashes of Empires, and then went through a genuinely impressive creative phase for The Blackening and Unto the Locust. That doesn't mean I forgive them for Supercharger however!
MACHINE HEAD - Catharsis (2018)
Machine Head are responsible for not 1, but 2 of what I consider to be the worst albums in my collection!! I remember the review bombing Catharsis got from fans back in 2018, so I avoided it like the plague. However, I finally heard it for the first time last year, and it's honestly worse than I thought! It's so fucking bad in fact that even Supercharger sounds better to my ears!! The lyrics throughout Catharsis (and particularly on the song 'Bastards') are absolutely cringe; Robb Flynn pushing his political agenda all over the album. Look, a lot of music is political, and I'm fine with that. You might as well just avoid a lot of music if you're gonna take whatever artist in question's politics too seriously. But the way Flynn talks about it on this album just reads like an angry teenager at a student society, and that's why I have a problem with it. I wouldn't be as sour about Catharsis if it was only the lyrics that sucked. Too bad the music itself is equally as terrible. Forget writing epic-length thrash/groove/proggressive-infused metal like we got on The Blackening and Unto the Locust (and even Bloodstone & Diamonds) - 'cos that didn't work out for them at all did it?! That particular sound was only responsible for creating 3 of their most acclaimed records!! Nope, Flynn effectively returns to the nu metal nonsense of The Burning Red and Supercharger! It seems like no coincidence to me that long-time members Phil Demmel and Dave McClain left the band post-Catharsis.
MAXIMUM PENALTY - Uncle Sham (2001)
Did any of you readers rack up the hours in the game Grand Theft Auto IV? Remember the New York hardcore-focused in-game radio station L.C.H.C.? There was a cool track on it called 'All Your Boys' by the band Maximum Penalty that I really liked (along with a whole list of others), and many years ago I went through a pretty big phase of buying hardcore albums and Maximum Penalty were one of the bands I was looking to get into. I ended up buying their 2001 album Uncle Sham - and holy shit it's bad! I'm pretty sure it's the same frontman as the guy that sang 'All Your Boys', but sweet Jesus his vocals are terrible on this album!! It barely sounds like the same guy for starters; he sounds more like some random dude trying to impersonate Mike Muir from Suicidal Tendencies, but pinching his nose in the process! As for the music, well, the production is shitty. The guitars are muddy and the whole album sounds like a demo. I don't have a problem with crap production in the right setting, but the songs are mostly all built around tired mid-tempo, groove-based riffage and none of the energy/fury you want from a NYHC band! I'm sure Maximum Penalty do have their good albums (especially if 'All Your Boys' is anything to go by), but this isn't one of them!
MEGADETH - Risk (1999)
Risk is an album I really hoped I'd start to understand the older I get, in the same way albums like Metallica's St. Anger (*gasp!*), Judas Priest's Turbo, Diamond Head's Canterbury etc. got better for me with age. But when it comes to Megadeth's Risk, I think I can give up on those dreams now that I'm 34! Christ almighty this is bad! If anything, it just gets worse with age! Songs like 'Insomnia', 'I'll Be There', 'Wanderlust' and just about any other fucking song on this record are a total clusterfuck of hard rock, alternative and pop... and just about ZERO of the technically-proficient thrash/speed metal that made Megadeth great to begin with! About the only songs I can tolerate are 'Breadline' and 'Crush 'Em', but I still feel like I lose brain cells every time I hear the latter! And yes, 'Prince of Darkness' sucks. How the hell did it make it to the fan-compiled 2005 best of Greatest Hits: Back to the Start?! It's just Dave Mustaine babbling absolute bollocks over some half-arsed riffs! But the most offensive thing about Risk to me is the fact this is the SAME lineup that recorded Rust in Peace. Just think about that for a minute...
METALLICA & LOU REED - Lulu (2011)
A predictable choice, but for good reason. Back in 2011 Metallica collaborated with Lou Reed (of all people) to record this double album, and the results are... hilarious, actually. Lou Reed sounds like Abe Simpson waffling utterly nonsensical lyrics (unless you're fully aware of the works of German playwright Frank Wedekind anyway) over some half-baked modern Metallica riffs, while James Hetfield provides such backing vocal lines like "I am the table!". This is a failed experiment in every sense of word - Lou's spoken-word vocals are completely out of key with the riffs even if they are funny as fuck, while the music itself feels like it's come from an amateur garage/jam band, not Metallica. This being Lou Reed, the lyrical matter is likely deep and thought-provoking if you really think hard about what he's trying to say... maybe this stuff is just too intellectual for us average Joe's? Or maybe it's all just a joke and Lou was actually trolling everyone? Yeah, Lulu is fucking terrible... but the album is so ridiculous it has at least provided countless hours of laughter for me.
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS - By the Way (2002)
Plenty of the picks for the post are of albums I personally don't enjoy, but I may still understand why someone else would. When it comes to Red Hot Chili Peppers though, they're a band I have almost nothing good to say about - I just can't stand them, regardless of their popularity. I like the song 'Fight Like a Brave', and I don't hate Chad Smith either (probably because he's played with other artists I happen to like, such as Glenn Hughes, Ozzy, Chickenfoot, Joe Satriani etc.). But RHCP just got worse and worse for me over time, and By the Way was fucking massive worldwide when it dropped in 2002. Everyone was listening to it. Personally, I think it always sucked arse. Other than the music to 'Dosed', the rest of this album is just so pedestrian, safe and dull to me. I can't stand Anthony Kiedis as a singer and a person, Flea is overrated and I've never understand the hype behind guitarist John Frusciante either. Nearly every guitar enthusiast as I've ever spoken to bigs this guy up to no end, so clearly Fusciante is doing something right. Obviously I need to hear his solo stuff to really understand the man, but his association with RHCP stops me doing that by default. Either way, By the Way is one of the most overplayed, overrated and annoying rock albums of the 2000's to my ears. And yet I still have it anyway, and won't part with it! I hang on to all my albums whether I like them or not! What a hypocrite I am!
SAXON - Destiny (1988)
Well, this one's slightly better than I remembered. 'Ride Like the Wind' is pretty much universally regarded as a great cover of the Christopher Cross number of the same name, and I actually kinda like 'Where the Lightning Strikes' these days too. For the most part though, this is album sticks out like a sore thumb in the calalogue. Why? Because they were blatantly selling out here by trying way too hard to appeal to the US market. In my head, Saxon are one of the poster boy meat n' potatoes, British blue-collar heavy metal bands. Sounding as shiny and glossy as they do here on the keyboard-drenched Destiny just feels so wrong goddamn it!! Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if the reason for this album's existence boils down to record label pressures; the album does not feel like a natural move from Saxon, nor do they ever play anything from it live. Funnily enough, I see plenty of praise for this record online these days. If keyboard-heavy, melodic, hooky radio pop rock/metal is your thing, then this is probably is a good album. But a good Saxon album this is not.
SMASHING PUMPKINS - Cyr (2020)
I was massively disappointed when this came out during COVID. It's predecessor, 2018's Shiny and Oh So Bright was a genuine return to form for the Pumpkins. It sounded like a true SP record. So what the hell was Billy Corgan thinking when he followed it up in 2020 with Cyr - a fucking synth-pop album?! I really do hate this album. I gave it a 3.9/10 when I reviewed it years ago, but it's more like a 2/10 now. I'm not a fan of synth-pop/electro in any shape or form, and that's exactly what this album is. What's the point in even having James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlain in the band if you're just gonna write and record songs like this? In fact, do they even play on the album at all?! Are those drums real? Whatever. Oh, and Cyr consists of 20 songs and lasts well over an hour, because of course it does. This should have been released as a Billy Corgan solo effort. I don't claim to be the Smashing Pumpkins' biggest fan, but I don't see how anyone who fell in love with albums such as Siamese Dream, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness or even Adore can get behind Cyr.
TRIVIUM - Ascendancy (2005)
I've talked about this album before in this article. I genuinely have no idea why I own this. I hated it when it first came out when I was at school, yet at some point it ended up in my collection well after I finished my education. I can't criticise Trivium for their musical ability; they sure know how to play and write songs, it's just that their early stuff isn't for me. I've said it a million times before - metalcore is not my thing, and this has always been one of the prime albums of said genre to me. Aficionados of the genre might disagree with that, but when I was at school this album and it's follow-up, The Crusade, were hyped to no end. I can't stand Matt Heafy's vocals, I can't stand the melodic guitars, I can't stand the lyrics ('Dying in Your Arms' is one of the cringiest metal songs of all time in my opinion)... I just can't stand Ascendancy! I'm not saying it's a bad album, it just isn't what I look for in a metal album. Having said that, I decided to listen to their 2021 album In the Court of the Dragon on Spotify a couple of months ago. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. It didn't always hit the spot for me, but musically they're not the same band they once were, and I can see why even a lot of metalcore haters like myself have given the album praise online.
TYGERS OF PAN TANG - Burning in the Shade (1987)
Even if Saxon's Destiny is a travesty in my books, I get why some people do like that album. Tygers of Pan Tang's Burning in the Shade however, is just god awful full-stop. Like Destiny, this is the sound of a British heavy metal band attempting radio-friendly melodic pop rock, a far cry from the raw and punky underground metal 1980 debut Wild Cat or it's blazing follow-up Spellbound. At least Destiny had some balls; Burning in the Shade is so fucking fluffy and tepid that absolutely nothing about the songs or production bares any muscle whatsoever. When I reviewed this a few years ago, about the only decent thing I had to say is the fact John Deverill is a fantastic singer and totally pulls this style of music off in the vocal department. I still agree with that statement, because the man certainly does have the pipes for heavy metal and radio-friendly pop rock such as this. Too bad the music is awful.
HANK WILLIAMS III - 3 Bar Ranch Cattle Callin' (2011)
I'm not a country fan, but it's not like I detest the genre or anything like that. There's plenty of songs I actually like, even if I don't think I'll ever go out of my way to buy more country albums. I do like Hank 3 though, and actually own a few of his albums. I always liked the way he kind of fused a punk rock attitude into his brand of outlaw country, and the fact the guy is a legit metalhead and has even made metal albums obviously helps too. 3 Bar Ranch Cattle Callin' though, is one of the stupidest albums I've ever heard. What this is, is effectively 71 minutes of cattle market auctioneer samples babbling over sloppy extreme metal riffs (riffs that range from black metal to doom/stoner metal)! It's pretty fucking hilarious to hear when you're drunk, and credit where credit's due to Hank - he invented a completely new metal subgenre with this album, CATTLECORE! I mean, it's fucking terrible - but original at least! In all seriousness though, this album is a complete joke next to his highly-praised country records. And if you want to hear any of Hank's metal stuff, you're better off listening to Assjack or his doom metal album, Attention Deficit Domination.
These next choices are all albums that I generally dislike for one reason or another, just not to the same extent as the picks above:
ANNIHILATOR - All for You (2004)
1997's Remains quite often takes top spot for "worst Annihilator album", but since it has 'Tricks and Traps' and 'Reaction' on it - 2 of my absolute favourite Annihilator songs - I can't be too unkind towards that one! My vote for worst album goes to All for You. Granted, there's some good stuff on here like 'Demon Dance', 'Rage Absolute' and 'Bled' (hence why it's only made the runners-up list), but All for You is also responsible for 2 of the absolute worst Annihilator ballads ('The One' and 'Holding On') as well as an overall rough start for at the time new vocalist Dave Padden. His alternative/nu metal-influenced vocal style on this album is a mismatch, and the music has often been modernised to match this. Like I said, the album doesn't always miss the mark, but overall it just isn't a good record. Thankfully Padden learned from his mistakes quickly and would redeem himself on later Annihilator releases, but I understand why so many fans felt he was a strange choice of vocalist at the time. Let's not leave Jeff Waters out the picture either though - he's the one who writes all the songs after all!
BATHORY - Octagon (1995)
Not entirely sure what was going through ol' Quorthon's head when he recorded this album! Octagon is a thrash metal album that bears no real resemblance to the pioneering early black metal albums Bathory, nor the Viking-themed stuff that came later. And simply put, this isn't a particularly good thrash album either. I think the actual songs are generally okay, but the horrid, tinny production really does them no favours. People always bang on about how bad St. Anger sounds, have they ever heard Octagon before?! Where's the bass?! And the drums sound like a mixture of pans and cardboard boxes! The lyrics are dumb, and Quorthon's vocals this time around are snarly and nasally - and simply not good. Raw, demo-like production can work for thrash if done correctly, but Octagon is not a good example of this. I don't think this is the worst album in the world at all; I like the intensity of the songs as well as most of the riffs, and had the production/vocals been handled differently then Quorthon could've been onto something. But I don't think it's controversial to call Octagon one of - if not the worst Bathory record.
BLUE OYSTER CULT - Club Ninja (1985)
It pains me to list 2 Blue Oyster Cult albums within this post, but Club Ninja is an album I almost always skip over every time I revisit this band. And it's a shame because at least 3/4 of their catalogue is really good. But they missed the mark with this album in 1985. Too shiny and commercial, and lacking the eccentric, quirky charms of classic BOC - as well as balls. It's more-or-less a straight-up AOR album to my ears, and not a particularly good one at that. I must admit, I think if I were to re-review this one again today, I'd probably up it's rating from a 3.5/10 to a 4, because I enjoy it just a tad more now than I did then, but even so, a 4/10 isn't exactly anything to brag about.
THE DARKNESS - Permission to Land (2003)
This album was all the rage here in the UK back in 2003. It was popular to the point where I'm pretty sure even people who aren't rock fans were buying it. Truth be told, I think the songwriting is actually very good. The songs are catchy, the melodies are great and the riffs are memorable. So why is it on this list? Because I can't fucking stand Justin Hawkins' voice!! There's nothing wrong with high-pitched male vocals when done well, but I just don't hear it with Hawkins. I get the guy is kind of a goof and it totally adds to the band's comedic tone (they are a joke band... right?!), but I just find him fucking annoying after a couple of tracks.
DEF LEPPARD - Songs from the Sparkle Lounge (2008)
Picking on Def Leppard just feels like low-hanging fruit as a metalhead. Like I said above when talking about the woeful X, they do have albums I love that mean a lot to me, and at least they're open about not wanting to be associated with heavy metal. That has to be better than slagging off metal music and fans while still releasing metal albums at the same time, right?! Still, doesn't mean I have to like everything they ever put out. Case in point, Songs from the Sparkle Lounge. When I reviewed this however many years ago, I somehow didn't even know who Tim McGraw was - but he sings on 'Nine Lives' here either way. In general, this is just a very pedestrian, safe-sounding pop album masked as a glam/hard rock record. There's a lot of guitar to digest here, which is good - yet the album still feels soft as shit.
DROWNING POOL - Sinner (2001)
How this one didn't make my 'Albums I own, but don't recall where on when I obtained them!' post last year I don't know. I totally forgot I have this, and I really have no clue where/when I got it! It's Drowning Pool, so it's nu metal of course. And aside from the first couple of Slipknot albums and maybe a bit of Limp Bizkit, nu metal ain't my jam. I don't particularly like Sinner either, but I've heard worse I suppose (*cough* Machine Head! *cough*). To be honest, the song 'Bodies' has tainted Drowning Pool for me; I feel like I've heard that song a billion times over the years, and not by choice! Aside from that, this is just a nu metal album. It could be a good'un for all I know, but it's not my cup of tea.
FEAR FACTORY - Digimortal (2001)
I'm only a casual fan of Fear Factory. I have a few of their albums in my collection, but don't feel the need to obtain them all. I think Demanufacture is excellent, and I have no idea why I scored it a 7.9/10 in 2018 - if I were to review it now it'd be a high-ranging 8/10, easily. But 2001's Digimortal certainly doesn't come close to greatness of Demanufacture. It's their nu metal album of course, but I don't find it to be as offensive as what Machine Head did even if it still sounds pretty poor to my ears. Not every song on here sucks, and I think at the very least Digimortal still sounds close-ish to their classic output in the riffs department at least - just a downgraded version. It's the electro/industrial side that has the most negative impact on this album, and the reason why I always skip over it whenever I am in the mood to hear this band. Sepultura's Roots almost made this list for similar reasons, but that album is more like a 5/10 for me - it's one of the better examples of a band going nu metal and not entirely sucking!
GUNS N' ROSES - The Spaghetti Incident? (1993)
Sadly, Guns N' Roses will always be one of the most overrated bands in rock for me. Appetite for Destruction is an absolute classic (even I admit that despite being sick to death of 'Welcome to the Jungle' and 'Sweet Child O' Mine'), but I hate the way the band have essentially milked that album for what it's worth throughout their entire career. I mean, this is a band that have existed since 1985 and technically never officially dissolved, and in that time they've made 5 studio albums (well, technically 6 if you count G N' R Lies...) in over 4 decades! And one of them, The Spaghetti Incident?, is just a covers album!! I must admit, I don't hate this one like I did as a teenager - probably because I like a lot of the original songs and bands that GN'R cover on here (most of this album is punk covers, presumably because of Duff McKagan's punk background). The covers of The Damned's 'New Rose', Fear's 'I Don't Care About You' and The Stooges' 'Raw Power' are all pretty good, and the guitar tones are great. But the bulk of this album is forgettable even if it's not terrible, and the fact this band's catalogue is so small despite how long they've existed for makes it worse somehow! It's probably a better covers album than UFO's The Salentino Cuts, but at least UFO never stopped making music! Yeah, The Spaghetti Incident? never fails to annoy me in some way, even if the music isn't that bad!
MACHINE HEAD - The Burning Red (1999)
Yep, Machine Head are on this list for the 3rd time!! The Burning Red is the best of the 3 nu metal albums they put out, but that's not saying much. It's predecessor, The More Things Change..., displayed subtle hints at what was to come with The Burning Red, but just imagine if this anomaly came out directly after Burn My Eyes!! Would any of their fans stuck around?! Well, the cover of the Police's 'Message in a Bottle' is surprisingly good at least, and there's some bits and pieces of 'I Defy', 'The Blood, the Sweat, the Tears' and 'Devil with the King's Card' that I like - but the bulk of this album is a chock-full of those shitty detuned, simplistic nu metal riffs and embarrassing rapped vocals from Robb Flynn. Not as bad as Catharsis or Supercharger, but still lame.
MORBID ANGEL - Illud Divinum Insanus (2011)
A pretty universally-hated album, all things considered. I agree it's poor, but I don't hate it to the same extent that so many other people do. Since it has a small handful of songs that actually sound like Morbid Angel on it ('Existo Vulgore', 'Blades for Baal' and 'Beauty Meets Beast'), I don't think it's a total flop. The rest is mostly an embarrassing mess of industrial/groove metal cringe with small hints of death metal, i.e. not like other Morbid Angel records at all. A failed experiment, and one I talked about pretty recently in detail here.
SAXON - Rock the Nations (1986)
Like Blue Oyster Cult, I really don't like listing Saxon - one of my favourite bands - twice in this post! But Rock the Nations is the other outlier in their discography that just does not work for me like 95% of the rest of the albums do. 'Battle Cry' is fucking awesome - why couldn't the rest of the album sounded like this! To be fair, I do think the title track is kind of a fun arena rocker, and 'Waiting for the Night' is a guilty pleasure, but the rest of this album feels kind of dishonest. Not to the same extent as Destiny of course, but Rock the Nations still feels like an obvious attempt at appealing to a wider audience; a far cry from their roots. But hey, Elton motherfucking John plays piano on 'Party 'til You Puke' and 'Northern Lady'. ELTON JOHN PLAYED ON A SAXON ALBUM!! How cool is that?!
SUICIAL TENDENCIES - Free Your Soul... and Save Your Mind (2000)
I'm a big ST fan, but even I have to admit they're catalogue as a whole is far from perfect. Too many lazy re-recordings of old songs masked as proper studio albums, and they started dabbling too much with funk in the '90s/early 2000s. I've never really understood why that happened; Mike Muir already had his funk metal/rock band Infectious Grooves as far back as 1989, so why he put this much funk into Suicidal Tendencies for 2000's Free Your Soul has always confused me. Wikipedia has this album's genre down as "hardcore punk" - not true. It's more like "funk-infused punk" works better. Not that this automatically means the album will be bad, but is anyone really gonna put this on the same pedestal as the legendary punk rock debut, the crossover classic Join the Army or the thrash metal-focused brilliance of How Will Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today? and Lights... Camera... Revolution?! 'Cos I sure don't!
U2 - Rattle and Hum (1988)
I'm not a U2 fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I don't hate them like some people do. Bono is a tosser, sure, and in general I think there's always been something pretentious about them - but it's hard not to like an album such as The Joshua Tree. Too many good songs on that one, and I like a handful of their other '80s tracks too. That's why I own Rattle and Hum; I bought it because I liked the song 'Angel of Harlem' and this used CD cost me something like £2. The rest of this album doesn't really do a lot for me. It's a mish-mash of live tracks and studio numbers, and the whole thing feels like a bit of a rushed hackjob, especially compared to the intricate Joshua Tree. I get that it's basically the soundtrack to the documentary of the same name (which I have no plans to watch), and to be honest, it sounds better to me than most of the shite this band have put out from the year 2000-onwards. But it's not something I'll probably ever sit down and listen to in full ever again either.
URIAH HEEP - Different World (1991)
Uriah Heep's Different World is yet another case of a pioneering heavy rock/metal band trying to appeal to the masses. Simply put, it doesn't sound like any of the albums that likely made you a Heep fan in the first place (...Very 'Eavy, Very 'Umble, Salisbury, Look at Yourself, Demons and Wizards, The Magician's Birthday... even Abominog) - nope, expect something that resembles arena/melodic rock/AOR/pop metal over prog-infused heavy rock songs, distorted Hammond organs and metallic guitar riffs and operatic vocals. Not necessarily awful, just not what I want to hear from the Heep. On the plus side, it was the second album to feature vocalist Bernie Shaw, and I always enjoy hearing that guy sing.
Monday, 4 May 2026
Some albums I own, but dislike for one reason or another!
Friday, 10 April 2026
DIMMU BORGIR
Reviewed:
- For All Tid (1995)
- Enthrone Darkness Triumphant (1997)
- Spiritual Black Dimensions (1999)
- Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia (2001)
- Death Cult Armageddon (2003)
- Stormblåst MMV (2005)
- In Sorte Diaboli (2007)
- Abrahadabra (2010)
- Eonian (2018)
FOR ALL TID 1995 (Nuclear Blast)
- Standouts: 'Under korpens vinder', 'Stien', 'Hunnerkongens sorgsvarte ferd over steppene', 'Raabjørn speiler draugheimens skodde'
If you read my recent 'Blast from the past albums' post about Gorgoroth's Under the Sign of Hell, you'll know that I didn't really get into black metal until I was around 18, and even then I would say I was only really a casual fan of the genre throughout most of my 20s. Dimmu Borgir were one of the first black metal bands I checked out; I remember buying their 2005 album Stormblåst MMV - actually a re-recording of their 1996 album of the same name - and liking it enough to pick up Death Cult Armageddon not long afterwards. And then I didn't buy any other Dimmu Borgir albums for many years... at some point during my 20s I acquired Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia, but it's not until recent years that I really acquired more of their catalogue. Like I said, I was a casual black metal fan for years, so I was only really picking up albums that could be considered "essential" to the genre for a very long time.
But hey, it's 2026 now and I own most of Dimmu Borgir's major releases, including this 1995 debut of theirs, For All Tid ('For All Time' translated). I haven't really lived with this one very long, but I like it. I'd heard the band's earlier material was much rawer and more in line with the classic second-wave Norwegian black metal sound than what they would evolve into later, but that just means I kinda dig this album by default. It's far from one of the best black metal albums of the time that I can think of; it doesn't hold a candle to Emperor's In the Nightside Eclipse, Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas or Immortal's At the Heart of Winter etc., but I still find For All Tid to be an enjoyable romp nonetheless. True, the style of tremolo riffing combined with the rough production is similar to what a lot of the other bands of the scene were doing at the time, but you can still hear plenty of the key ingredients of what makes Dimmu Borgir, well, Dimmu Borgir in here throughout the CD. For starters, this is still melodic black metal with strong symphonic overtones. It's just a much less refined, cruder version of the sort of thing they would record later on down the line.
Technically speaking, the music is more simplistic here than their later works. And thanks to the raw production, the songs have a much harsher feel to them. I won't say heavier, but definitely harsher in that typical lo-fi black metal fashion. Most of the lead vocals were still performed by Silenoz here, rather than Shagrath. And for the most part, he's growling and gargling his way through the songs, save for some usage of clean vocals on 'Over bleknede blåner til dommedag'. His clean vocals are, admittedly, kinda amateurish and borderline amusing, but I can tolerate them. It's a big part of Dimmu Borgir's sound, it's just surprising how Silenoz ended up singing the bulk of the songs when Shagrath is undoubtedly the better vocalist of the 2. Guess he just didn't know it yet?! And while the band's instrumentation would get more technical and impressive further down the line, I wouldn't necessarily call the song structures "basic". They don't sound any less accomplished than a lot of their contemporaries, at least in my opinion. Even if the songs aren't hugely exciting overall, they're not sloppy.
I can't call this my favourite Dimmu Borgir record, but I'm definitely in the ballpark of fans who actually appreciate this album. Review scores and opinions are all over the place online. I agree that it's as basic as the band gets, but I think as a black metal album from 1995, it's really not a bad effort at all. Sure, not much research is required to find better albums from the same era than this one, but you could certainly do a lot worse. The keyboards have been put to good use and bring lots of appropriately mystical and cold atmosphere to the simplistic riffs. It adds that much-needed symphonic layer to some pretty basic black metal, and makes them feel much more grandiose and epic. And that's good of course! Atmosphere is hugely important in this genre, and I think they deliver in this regard. That's probably why I like For All Tid. Again, not a classic of the genre, but a solid start for Dimmu Borgir.
Adam's rating: 7.4/10
ENTHRONE DARKNESS TRIUMPHANT 1997 (Nuclear Blast)
- Standouts: Whole thing is superb!
I'm fully aware that I'm missing the original version of Stormblåst, which was released in 1996 between For All Tid and this, 1997's Enthrone Darkness Triumphant. It seems to sell for an arm and a leg online wherever I look right now, and I'm happy enough to just stick with my copy of the 2005 re-recorded version. But anyway, last October I spent a weekend in Chester with my fiancée and visited a really cool record shop that I'd once been in many years ago (Grey n Pink Records). A lot of their stock is vinyl, but they also have a tasty selection of used CDs. I found my copy of Enthrone Darkness Triumphant for something like £3 or £4, and it rekindled my interest in Dimmu Borgir. The last time I bought a DB album was way back in likely my early 20s (it was Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia). But I've listened to Enthrone Darkness Triumphant a lot in the last 6 months or so, and like I said in my For All Tid review, I've added a few more DB albums to my collection ever since. Also nice is the fact practically all these albums have cost me very little (except for the aforementioned 1996 Stormblåst, where any version of that album is crazy expensive right now!) - I feel like a lot of the bands I like have at least 3 or 4 albums that are out of print and hard to find cheap.
Anyway, Enthrone Darkness Triumphant is one classy, dramatic and maybe even operatic slab of black metal. The level of musicianship compared to For All Tid is night and day. Yet they still hadn't quite gotten super popular yet at this point, so the album as a whole feels more like a 100% legit black metal release. I'd like to point out that I personally don't hold any grudges against them getting popular. I guess some fans felt they sold out with their later albums... fair enough, but I still think they had plenty of aces left up their sleeves. They're one of the very few Scandinavian black metal bands with charting albums worldwide! If anything, I admire that!
Back to EDT. The music is much more accomplished of course, but still firmly black metal. Everything's just better now, though. The guitars are still mostly made up of tremolo-picked riff structures, but there's far more going on. You get more odd chords thrown in, and all the riffs flow together effortlessly. Also, you do get the occasional catchy riff here and there (just listen to those more conventional mid-tempo heavy metal riffs in 'Master of Disharmony') - they don't take away from the bleak atmosphere or black metal sound of this album, they just keep things fresh. Meanwhile, the symphonic/keyboardy element of the band is much more impressive and moody, not mention memorable. It's hard to remember some of these tracks purely by the riffs, but I never forget how any of the symphonic/keyboard melodies go, particularly on songs like 'Spellbound (By the Devil)', 'Tormentor of Christian Souls', 'Entrance', 'In Death's Embrace' etc.. They're either epic, dark, brooding or gothic... or all of those things at the same time! I'd also like to add that Tjodalv's drum work is tight as fuck, and throughout the album he's doing all kinds of double-kicks and blast beats; a huge step-up from For All Tid. The music is pretty darn great then, but so are the vocals. Shagrath takes over lead vocals, and even though he's not really "original" in his approach to them, his growls are dark and menacing, yet also clear and audible all things considered.
There's not really a lot of holes I can pick with this one. It's not one of my favourite black metal albums ever, even if I do hold it in high regard. And the songs are all kind of samey I guess, so if I'm not in a black metal mood, well, tough shit. There aren't any songs that obviously stand out as being different from one another, but this isn't really a bad thing either. Basically, the album never gets boring. Even the production is really good; far more professional than For All Tid, and also a whole lot heavier. I get that some people dig the lo-fi sound of black metal, but I think when you're writing and recording songs with this much depth, a raw mix wouldn't be getting the best out of the tracks. So really, practically everything on this album is a prime example of symphonic black metal done correctly. Dimmu Borgir won't ever top Emperor for me, but Enthrone Darkness Triumphant is no doubt one of the greatest albums of this particular style.
Adam's rating: 8.8/10
SPIRITUAL BLACK DIMENSIONS 1999 (Nuclear Blast)
- Standouts: Consistently great from beginning to end.
Well I think I might actually like the music on this one more than Enthrone Darkness Triumphant, it's just a shame that the production/mixing it isn't quite up to snuff! The drum work is awesome, but it'd sound even better had they been more prominent in the mix! It's the only thing that really bugs me about this album. Aside from that, I've only really got good things to say about Spiritual Black Dimensions. It's certainly a symphonic black metal album over anything else, but it also leaves me with a taste of what I can only really describe as "extreme metal"... reminds me a little of Cradle of Filth? 'Course, I don't want to compare Dimmu Borgir directly to Cradle of Filth, but I do think they share some similarities. Anyway, despite the problems surrounding the drums, the production in general is probably even cleaner than the previous album. Don't fret however; the cleaner, more modern production only works in the album's favour. The music is even more epic and symphonic than it's predecessor that I think a rough mix would've harmed the atmosphere quite severely. Ahh, the atmosphere.
Yep, this was easily the most symphonic/keyboard-y album they'd made at this point, and it's been pulled off remarkably well once again. In fact, in terms of atmosphere, I'd say SBD has the edge over EDT. It's kind of dreamlike, yet nightmarish all the same. There's lots of pianos, strings and choir-like backing vocals all over the songs, and it's admirable how well the band incorporate them into the harsh nature of black metal. Because they don't hold back on the guitars either; there's tons of heavy, thrashy and extreme riffage going on throughout the album - check out 'The Blazing Monoliths of Defiance'. There's even some neat guitar soloing on here too. For example, 'Dreamside Dominons' guitar solos shred, while the soloing on 'Grotesquery Conceiled (Within Measureless Magic)' is highly melodic and tuneful! Definitely unconventionally black metal, if that makes any sense. Call 'em sellouts if you really want, 'cos they definitely were expanding their sound on this album. I think it works; the album may be more grandiose and epic than it's predecessor, but I'd also argue that the actual metallic side of the songs is even heavier than before, hence the feeling of extreme metal I get. The musicianship has risen another level - the guitar playing is more technical and impressive, Shagrath's vocal performance is even stronger this time around, plus the album has lots of guest clean vocals from ICS Vortex. All the while the symphonic arrangements feel really well thought-out and implemented. It all adds up to create a more experimental record, but no aspect of the songwriting outstays it's welcome, so I'm in favour of it. It doesn't feel like they were selling out to me at all. Maybe if I'd been a fan of them since their inception I wouldn't feel the same way, but personally this is the kind of sound I think of most when it comes to Dimmu Borgir!
Despite the imperfect production, I still think I'm gonna have to put Spiritual Black Dimensions above Enthrone Darkness Triumphant. I get lost in the atmosphere of this album, and the 49 minute length of the record means I never get bored in the process. It's accessible black metal, and that's not a bad thing.
Adam's rating: 9/10
PURITANICAL EUPHORIC MISANTHROPIA 2001 (Nuclear Blast)
- Standouts: 'Blessings Upon the Throne of Tyranny', 'Kings of the Carnival Creation', 'Hyrbid Stigmata', 'Architecture of a Genocidal Nature', 'Puritania', 'Indoctrination', 'The Maelstrom Mephisto', 'Absolute Sole Right'
Even more experimental and larger in scope than Spiritual Black Dimensions! Whether or not that's a good thing is up to the listener. I tend to see either Enthrone Darkness Triumphant, Spiritual Black Dimensions or this, Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia at the top of peoples' favourite Dimmu Borgir album lists. So it's fair to go into this one with high expectations. For me, I heard this after Stormblåst MMV and Death Cult Armageddon, and then didn't buy any more DB records for many years. I definitely considered it to be the best of the 3 albums I did own at the time, and I've listened to it a bunch of times again over the last few months and I have to say it still hits the spot. But is it better than either of the last 2? Nah! Like I said, there's more things going on musically here. Unlike the last 2, I find it difficult to really slap the "symphonic black metal" label on it and leave it at that. Symphonic blackened extreme metal?! Yeah, I guess!
I will say that from a production standpoint, this is the best yet. There's no issues with the drums here, the guitars are monstrously heavy and everything as a whole sounds rich and deep. I can't fault the album sonically at all. And really, even if I still find myself enjoying the previous couple of albums more, we're only talkin' small amounts. PEM is great! The symphonic side of the band is still in full effect of course, but the atmosphere is a tad different this time around. It isn't quite as mesmerising as SBD, nor is it as dark as EDT. I'd describe it as gothic-y and theatrical with a slightly tongue-in-cheek attitude. There's all kinds of different vocal styles on here. The expected growls from Shagrath are present of course, but there's also a whole lot more clean vocals courtesy of ICS Vortex. The clean vocals are operatic and somewhat cheesy, but it only adds to the charm of the band. Some of the vocals on tracks like 'Hybrid Stigmata' and 'Puritania' are distorted and give the album an industrial edge at times. See what I mean when I say it's hard to really stamp "black metal" on this CD?! I mean, some of the riffs even sound full-on thrash to my ears at times (see 'Architecture of a Genocidal Nature' and 'Indoctrination'!)!
So the album's kind of all over the place at times, but thankfully the keyboards and orchestration keep the overall atmosphere pretty grounded. And even if the experimentation has been taken that extra step further, the music is never dull. It's an exciting record from start to finish, and also their most technically impressive effort at the time (the drumming is insane, the guitars are tight as hell, the vocals are wider-ranging etc.). I just find the tone of Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia to be a little less special than the previous 2 efforts. Atmosphere is a huge part of this band, and even if this is the most impressive of the 3 in terms of actual performances from the band members, it doesn't quite offer the same level of musical escapism as it's 2 predecessors. That's not to say it lacks atmosphere, 'cos it most definitely has plenty to go around. I'm just saying that I like the atmosphere of the last couple of albums a bit more.
Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia is about as good as I remembered. It's great, even. My least favourite of the classic trilogy, sure, but still highly enjoyable. I get why some black metal fans might take issue with Dimmu Borgir; I mean, this album is massively overblown and too big for it's own boots if you look at it from a purely black metal perspective. But that's also kind of the point, and also why they're one of the few bands to come out of that scene with any sort of mainstream popularity. I'd hate 'em too if they were throwing in pop melodies and choruses here... but they didn't! I guess to some people any change in musical direction is considered "selling out". In Dimmu Borgir's case, I don't care (at least at this point in their career). I'll keep spinning this one thanks!
Adam's rating: 8.4/10
DEATH CULT ARMAGEDDON 2003 (Nuclear Blast)
- Standouts: 'Allegiance', 'Progenies of the Great Apocalypse', 'Lepers Among Us', 'For the World to Dictate Our Death', 'Allehelgens død i Helveds rike', 'Cataclysm Children', 'Unorthodox Manifesto'
Well this feels like a more focused Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia to me. And hey, although the title "Death Cult Armageddon" is kinda silly, at least it rolls off the tongue a little easier than "Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia"! But yeah, while the album is still massively pompous (in a good way) and theatrical, it just feels a little more, well, guided this time around. Or maybe it's just not surprising to hear the orchestral theatrics of the band anymore after the experimentation of the previous album? Yep, I dunno what I'm talking about either! I guess all I'm trying to say is that Death Cult Armageddon feels like a confident sequel to Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia. It does things similarly without feeling like a total rehash.
The music is still bombastic; 'Progenies of the Great Apocalypse' even has kind of a fanfare sound about it. It really is symphonic, and not just in an atmospheric way. That's how I feel about a lot of this album. The orchestral sound is grander and more classical. Not necessarily as gothic in atmospheric this time, but more epic. And that goes for the entire thing really. The Prague Philharmonic Orchestra lent a hand for the recording of the album, and it shows. I'm not taking anything away from bands like I Emperor (I'm a bigger Emperor fan that I am Dimmu Borgir), but when it comes to symphonic black metal, well, DB really are symphonic - more so than Emperor. Like I said, at this point in their career, the orchestral arrangements serve a far bigger purpose than just atmosphere. While the strings, horns and whatever else obviously do lend a big hand in creating an epic, horror-like atmosphere, they're a big part of the structure of the songs on this album too. It doesn't really feel experimental for this particular album, the band feel comfortable with it.
Thankfully however, they hadn't completely forgotten how to be heavy either. The guitar tones aren't quite as biting or extreme as they were on the predecessor, but the riffs are still there. 'Cataclysm Children' for example, is a black metal monster. The drumming is as intense as ever, and Shagrath's vocals are predictably as nasty and throat-shredding as they should be throughout the tracklisting. I don't find this album to be as heavy overall as PEM though. If you're gonna put more focus into the orchestral side of the music, then by default the album is gonna feel less extreme as a whole. I mean, the orchestral melodies can be pretty at times - 'Allehelgens død i Helveds rike' has some of the heaviest, most extreme riffing and drum work of the whole album, but also some of the most soaring, pretty symphonies to go with it! Some people feel they strayed too far from the traditional black metal sound and went too far with all the pompy experimentation/dicking around with orchestras on the last album - those same people will undoubtedly feel the same way about Death Cult Armageddon. Me, I think they got the balance right again on this disc.
Having said that, I do think the album is longer than it needed to be. It lasts over an hour in total, and all 3 of the longest songs ('Eradication Instincts Defined', 'Unorthodox Manifesto' and 'Heavenly Perverse') are all tacked on the end of the album one after another. Granted, they're all good songs - I particularly like the ambitious 'Eradication Instincts Defined' - but I can't help but feel like the album would've flown better had they been spaced out more. As it stands, the album gets a little tiresome after 50 or so minutes, even if the quality of the music is pretty consistent throughout. I also don't like the way ICS Vortex has been under-utilised here. Maybe it's just me, but it feels like there's a lot less usage of clean vocals on this album compared to it's predecessor, and given how grandiose and orchestral the songs are now, I find that surprising.
All in all however, Death Cult Armageddon is pretty great once again. It's one of 3 Dimmu Borgir albums I've had in my collection for a very long time, but it's not one I really listened to much when I was younger. Hearing it again today though, I'd say I like it to nearly the same extent as Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia.
Adam's rating: 8/10
STORMBLAST MMV 2005 (Nuclear Blast)
- Standouts: Take your pick!
The first Dimmu Borgir album I ever bought. I'm not sure how I ended up with this one first, it being a re-recording of their second album, 1996's Stormblåst. I think I must've bought it without knowing it was a re-recording! I still don't own the original due to high prices online, nor have I heard it... maybe that's a good thing? I can judge Stormblåst MMV purely by it's own merit. I will say that I'm often not a fan of when a band re-records one of their older albums. A lot of the time it just seems unnecessary, but reviews online of this one are mostly pretty positive. As far as re-recorded albums go, people seem to like this. Me? Yep, I still like it a lot. The fact it was my first DB album could mean there's some bias in that thinking, but in general this is just a strong slice of melodic/symphonic black metal. And if you listen to it chronologically after the last few albums, it's kind of a breath of fresh air. Spiritual Black Dimensions... things were starting to get pretty fancy and pompous. Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia... well, they got totally experimental at that point. Death Cult Armageddon... that's a ridiculously symphonic, epic record. And then we get to Stormblåst MMV, and it feels like they've reverted to their roots. I mean, they technically have of course because it's a re-recording of their second album - but once again, I still haven't heard it!
Naturally then, this album is much more traditionally black metal than any of the last 3. It's still symphonic of course; every song makes use of atmospheric keyboards/synths like they've always done. But there's certainly no real experimentation to speak of, and that's why the almost stripped-back nature of the music is a welcome return. Not that I take issue with any of the previous 3 albums, there's just nothing wrong with going back to basics every once in a while! And anyway, there's still a depth to these songs. The orchestral sounds are nowhere near as bombastic this time, but either way there's a rich and majestic, dark atmosphere throughout the entirety of this disc that is essential to any Dimmu Borgir record. It's a perfect album to listen to at home on a cold, rainy winters day.
The guitar work is more traditionally black metal as expected - there's more of the usual tremolo riffs and less variety of styles to speak of than the last few albums. But that's fine! If anything, I find the guitars combined with the atmospheric keyboards gives this album more emotion and honesty than Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia or Death Cult Armageddon. It isn't as harsh or heavy, nor is it as technically impressive - but that's not the point. A lot of the time there's melody in the guitars, even if they are more typically black metal. The drums too (interestingly provided by Mayhem's Hellhammer this time), feel a bit less show showy - but are still tight as a drum and full of all the expected blastbeats. Good stuff! As for the vocals, again, Shagrath's growls are a tad more limited, but they accompany the music perfectly. And there aren't any clean vocals courtesy of ICS Vortex to speak of whatsoever - although there are still some clean vocals, like on 'Vinder fra en ensom grav'. In fact, Dimmu Borgir recorded Stormblåst MMV with a completely different band approach. There's only 4 guys playing on this album as opposed to 6. No doubt this makes the music more faithful to their roots.
Hmm. I don't have much else to say about the actual music! It's hard to really talk about the songs individually as they pretty much all confidently follow the similar formula of old-school black metal guitars with added melody, moody yet elegant keyboards, fast drums and growling vocals. I'll add that the production is understandably modern and I assume much cleaner than the original Stormblåst, but this is no bad thing. As I said before, I find this album to be a nice departure to their earlier sound after the high ambitions of the last few records. Again, maybe I'm biased because it was the first Dimmu Borgir album I ever heard, but Stormblåst MMV is just a fine melodic and atmospheric black metal album whichever way you look at it.
Adam's rating: 8.5/10
IN SORTE DIABOLI 2007 (Nuclear Blast)
- Standouts: 'The Serpentine Offering', 'The Chosen Legacy', 'The Ancestral Fever', 'The Sacrilegious Scorn', 'The Sinister Awakening', 'The Fundamental Alienation', 'The Invaluable Darkness'
Considering I only payed a fiver for my copy of In Sorte Diaboli, it has some of the coolest and most interesting packaging of any CD in my collection. It comes in a chunky digipak - nothing special - but inside is a cardboard pouch containing the booklet and a... mirror?! I didn't read the description on Ebay, so when this album came through my door and I opened up the digipak for the first time, I was confused to say the least. Open up the booklet however, and all the lyrics are printed backwards. The mirror is there so you can read them properly! I know, I know - pretty damn pointless. But I like when bands do this kind of shit! It's creative, and I feel like I got proper bang for my buck for a change! I know this album is common and it's easy to bag a limited edition copy like mine for peanuts, but a measly £5 got me a nice product, so I'm happy. It also comes with a bonus disc - a DVD that chronicles the making of the album. I don't watch these things, but whatever! Still cool!
As for the album and music itself, again, it's actually a bit less orchestral-sounding than Death Cult Armageddon. Even so, this is not a return to their black metal roots in the same vein of Stormblåst MMV. Nah, it definitely sits closer to the extreme blackened sounds of Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia and Death Cult Armageddon despite the fact they toned down the symphonic stylings this time around. That's not to say the album isn't symphonic - every song still makes use of keyboards, pianos and whatever else, it's just not so much at the forefront of the music for many of these tracks. So by default I'd say In Sorte Diaboli isn't quite as epic in terms of it's atmosphere... but Dimmu Borgir are Dimmu Borgir, and to say the album is not atmospheric would be lying. The music even takes a breather to focus on atmosphere with the instrumental 'The Fallen Arises', which is plonked in the middle of the tracklisting. Anyhow, I for one welcome the slight change in direction for this release. It's not as pompous or dynamic as aforementioned albums like Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia or Death Cult Armageddon, but the music is still heavy as all hell, and the performances from each of the band members is stellar.
And the songs are still rich and complex enough that they don't feel stripped-back, even if they're weren't toying so much with orchestras this time. Not that I'd have taken issue had they decided to go full-on black metal again of course, but with In Sorte Diaboli the band successfully trimmed the symphonic fat whilst still maintaining the extreme metal sound of the last few records (minus Stormblåst MMV). They put more effort into clean vocals throughout the album; ICS Vortex has more time to shine here than he did on Death Cult Armageddon, and he accompanies Shagrath's harsher black metal vocals very well. It keeps the music theatrical. The guitars are heavy and grinding, as expected, but the tones are still clean and crisp. The drumming is expectedly impressive, and there's enough bass/low end across the album to satisfy my needs. The production in general is very polished, but the instruments don't sound fake or over-processed either. It's ironic that my favourite Dimmu Borgir album (Spiritual Black Dimensions) is flawed in the production department, but most of their albums that have come since have all sounded great in my opinion.
Not only did they finetune their formula for this release, they also shortened the album's length. At 47 minutes long it's their shortest record since For All Tid. I suppose you could argue they were being unambitious, but one of the biggest problems I had with Death Cult Armageddon was the fact I thought it was too long. This isn't the case with In Sorte Diaboli. In fact, I think it was necessary for them to do what they did on this album at this point.
... and despite all my praise for this album, I'm still finding it hard to put it higher than Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia! I find In Sorte Diaboli to be consistently good from start to finish, but the songwriting doesn't excite me in the same way that PEM does. I still think this is a great album, and kind of an underrated one at that. I prefer it over Death Cult Armageddon, but it still isn't quite up to the same level of quality as the stuff they were putting out in the late 90s/early 2000s. But I still think anyone who enjoyed any of the last few albums will like this one a lot too. I know I do.
Adam's rating: 8.2/10
ABRAHADABRA 2010 (Nuclear Blast)
- Standouts: 'Chess with the Abyss', 'Ritualist', 'A Jewel Traced Through Coal'
Hmm. I can understand why hardcore black metal fans don't resonate with anything after Enthrone Darkness Triumphant, but looking at reviews online, Abrahadabra has even the most loyal Dimmu Borgir fans divided! Now, I've listened to Abrahadabra a handful of times, and I have to say I don't think it's terrible by any means. But I am certainly in agreement that the album's a noticeable step down after any of the last bunch. Oh, and that Abrahadabra is a dumb album title and almost feels like self-parody at this point.
On the surface of things, the album sounds like a continuation of Death Cult Armageddon or Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia, but when you really take in the songs you can tell that something's a little off somewhere. While the guitars are still heavy at heart, they're lacking somehow. The riffs feel a little more chuggy and simplistic overall, like they're there to tick boxes more than have any real effect on the structure of the songs. The way the album has been mixed makes sure the guitars have no real time in the spotlight - at least that's how I feel anyway. Of course, Dimmu Borgir were never solely about riffs - but there were definitely at least a handful of songs on every previous album that stuck the guitars front and centre. And they fact they're toned down the way they are becomes very noticeable after the first 2 or 3 on this album. Obviously the guitars not being prioritised means the album isn't as heavy overall as pretty much anything that came before. And that's the weird thing about this CD... it just doesn't ever seem to sound heavy to my ears. The fact it has Shagrath's raspy growls, detuned guitars and tight drums means it should sound heavy... but it doesn't! Hell, even the drums have been weakened in the mix as well though. I will at least say that the songs 'Chess with the Abyss' and 'A Jewel Traced Through Coal' are instant classics and could have fit on Death Cult Armageddon easily. It's just a shame they're somewhat marred by the fluffier production.
The band recruited the Norwegian Radio Orchestra to handle that side of things, and I think in terms of theatrics the album is as impressive as any other when it comes to that side of things. The atmosphere is epic and gothic-y again, even if it feels a little warmer than usual. And the way the symphonic passages and melodies blend in with the metallic side of the songwriting is once again pretty effortless and seamless. I'm always impressed by how the band manage to mesh both styles together so well. I also think the vocal performances from Shagrath and all the clean vocals from elsewhere (ICS Vortex does not appear on this album, clean vocals are handled by a number of guest singers) are on par with any of the last few records too. Also good is the fact they kept the album length just uder 50 minutes once again. It didn't need to be any longer, and thankfully it's not!
Sadly I'm in the same ballpark as everyone else who was disappointed by this album, in case you couldn't tell. I wouldn't call it an epic fail; it still sounds like Dimmu Borgir - just Dimmu Borgir for casual metal fans. I get that these guys had far more mainstream appeal than 99% of other black metal bands (the album sales and chart positions speak for themselves), but come on now - the casual metal fans I know like Metallica, Slipknot, Rammstein... maybe a bit of Lamb of God and Gojira (presumably because of the Olympics last year). They don't listen to Dimmu Borgir. Abrahadabra on the other hand, is an album I genuinely believe some casual metal fans could very well enjoy! Sorry to gatekeep, but this shouldn't have happened!
In all seriousness, this album is a big step-down from In Sorte Diaboli. But it's far from horrible. Nothing here makes me bite my lip or cringe, it's just lightweight by Dimmu Borgir's standards. Had it been produced/mixed differently, it'd be better for sure. Now there's something I'd buy - a remixed Abrahadabra.
Adam's rating: 6/10
EONIAN 2018 (Nuclear Blast)
- Standouts: 'Council of Wolves and Snakes', 'The Empyrean Phoenix', 'Lightbringer', 'I Am Sovereign', 'Archaic Correspondence', Alpha Aeon Omega'
It took nearly 8 years for this album to come out after 2010's Abrahadabra. And funnily enough, Eonian is still the most recent Dimmu Borgir studio album to date - that is, until next month (May 2026) when Grand Serpent Rising finally drops. I pretty much have to buy the new album next month now that I've started this post; it's total coincidence that the band just happens to be releasing their new album about a month after I started this page!
Anyhow, Eonian is a step back in the right direction after the disappointing Abrahadabra, even if I'm still struggling to put it on par with most of their albums pre-2010. And no matter how many times I listen to this thing, I just can't seem to enjoy opening track 'The Unveiling'. I like the main riff, but the orchestral melodies are too soft and soothing for my liking. It's a skip for me at this point, but thankfully 'The Unveiling' does not speak for the rest of this album. Track 2, 'Interdimensional Summit', would've made a better opener because the choir-style backing vocals are absolutely epic. A lot of folks on the World Wide Web seem to hate this one for being almost too orchestral for it's own good, sounding closer to Nightwish than Dimmu Borgir. But I kinda dig it, even if it's not perfect! So even though this one is an anomaly for some fans, the rest of the album isn't too full of surprises. Maybe 'Ætheric' isn't quite nasty enough, but at least it wasn't mixed like Abrahadabra and still has balls. And the way they end on an instrumental ('Rite of Passage') sometimes makes me want to end the album on the previous song instead of sitting through a fantasy soundtrack-like number, but whatever!
At least 70% of this CD is very good stuff. I'd argue that songs like 'Council of Wolves and Snakes', 'I Am Sovereign' and 'The Empyrean Phoenix' (the latter manages to remind me a lot of Enthrone Darkness Triumphant - that can only be a good thing!) are every bit as good, if not better, than what you heard on albums like Death Cult Armageddon or In Sorte Diaboli. When the album wants to be black metal, it's probably the most black metal Dimmu Borgir have sounded in a long time. When it wants to be more of a symphonic metal affair, then the orchestral arrangements are as epic as ever. A song like 'Lightbringer' - my favourite on the album - is a perfect blend of the 2. The riffs are great, the vocals are nasty... but there's enough theatrics here to make this one an instant classic. Really, Eonian feels like an album that sits somewhere between Death Cult Armageddon and In Sorte Diaboli. It's a bit more black metal than the former, but more symphonic/epic than the latter. The guitar work and riffage is a mixture of the usual black metal tremolo stuff along with the odd thrashy/death/extreme metal style riffs and even some melodic parts at times too. The vocals too, range from Shagrath's signature raspy high-end growls to deeper, lower gutterals and massive choir backing chants. It has the atmosphere a Dimmu Borgir record deserves, and all performances from each band member is as technically impressive as anything else they've ever recorded. Plus, the production packs more punch than Abrahadabra - the sheer heaviness of the band is just as potent as their majestic side, as it should be. It also sounds a tad more organic this time around, with better, clearer-sounding instruments this time around. Modern, but not too shiny either.
Eonian's quality seems ramp up a lot after the first handful of tracks. It's starts off a little dodgy, but those early niggling doubts fade quite quickly after 10 or so minutes of listening and it becomes a rock-solid Dimmu Borgir album. It's just a shame it isn't consistent in quality from start to finish like so many other DB records are. Still, it's a damn sight than Abrahadabra, and really, if you enjoyed practically anything this band released from Spiritual Black Dimensions onwards, then you'll certainly find enough to like about Eonian.
Adam's rating: 7.7/10
Thursday, 2 April 2026
Blast from the past albums #12: KILLSWITCH ENGAGE - Killswitch Engage (2000, Ferret Music)
In this series of posts I'll discuss an album I picked up as a teenager or my early 20s and haven't listened to in a very long time.
I can understand why I haven't bothered listening to this album again since I was about 19. Aside from maybe the odd riff, the first 3 tracks were immediately uncomfortable for me to digest. I'm not saying that because they're bad; in fact, I'll take Killswitch Engage over Bad Omens, Ice Nine Kills, Motionless in White and all the over TikTok generation pop metalcore slop that's popular these days. At least I know well enough that KE actually have credibility within their genre. I'm just saying that they don't settle well with me because they reminded me right away why I'm not a metalcore fan in the first place. It's the whiny, clean and melodic parts that piss me off. Well, that and the vocals as a whole. Jesse Leach definitely suits the music, that much is true - but he's not my cup of tea. The harsh vocals are too high pitched and grating, and not in a black metal way either. His clean singing voice is actually rather good, I'd just prefer not hear that, well, emo style of singing in my metal thank 'ya very much. But you know what? As a metalcore vocalist he's probably great. Talented for sure, just not my kind of vocalist. One thing I will give the band credit for is the blatantly obvious hardcore side of the metalcore sound. 'Irreversal' is built around some really heavy, detuned beatdown hardcore style riffs that remind me of bands like Terror, Strife... maybe even a bit of Biohazard. It makes me question where the "metal" part of "metalcore" comes into it, but at least they've got the "core" side covered!
In all honesty though, most of the album from track 4 onwards actually sounds quite a lot more metal to me. Other than the moody instrumental 'One Last Sunset', they seem to tone down the clean, melodic parts within a lot of the songs later on. Much of the riffing is kind of a blend of groove metal, melodeath and even a touch of thrash here and there, and in general about 60% of the actual music on this album actually sounds good to this metalhead's ears. I'm talkin' to the point where songs like 'Soilborn', 'Rusted Embrace' and 'In the Unblind' would actually sound pretty great with another singer with a completely different vocal style! The riffs are tight and heavy, any of the breakdown-y parts don't sound like pure cringe which I find to be the case with so many modern metalcore bands and there's also enough melody implemented within them that they're memorable too. If I had to pick a favourite song, it's probably 'Numb Sick Eyes'. The harsh vocals are still borderline annoying to me, but Leach's clean vocals combined with the atmospheric backing vox work really well here.
This is undoubtedly a biased post. I admitted at the beginning that I generally can't get on board with metalcore. But this album is a part of my collection, and it certainly does qualify for this post's subject matter! So at the very least I'm being honest here. I don't find this debut to be totally worthless; like I said, a decent chunk of the music sounds pretty decent to me, probably because I don't feel like the instrumentation is even typically metalcore 100% of the time. And I think guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz' (although at this point he was still on drums) relatively raw production is a breath of fresh air from the cleaner tones of their later stuff. But obviously I can't get fully on board with the vocals; I don't find Jesse Leach to be completely unlistenable, but I can only deal with him in small doses. But he's a huge reason why the metalcore vocal style in general just isn't my thing. Overall, this is probably a good album for metalcore fans, but for me it's a "just about tolerable" kind of affair. 95% of metalcore sounds horrid to me, so I guess that's a complement?
Funnily enough, I still wasn't completely done with Killswitch Engage after obtaining this debut and Alive or Just Breathing, 'cos for some reason I also own 2013's Disarm the Descent. I can't remember anything about that album other than the single 'In Due Time'.
Adam's rating: 5/10
Tuesday, 31 March 2026
Blast from the past albums #11: GORGOROTH - Under the Sign of Hell (1997, Regain Records)
In this series of posts I'll discuss an album I picked up as a teenager or in my early 20s and haven't listened to in a very long time.
I like black metal a lot. I really do. It's not a subgenre of metal I gravitate to on a regular basis, but when I'm in the mood for it I honestly find it to be one of the best. It can be so cold and unforgiving in a way that takes me to another place. It has a sense of escapism that I find a lot of other metal subgenres lack... but like I was saying, sometimes I don't want to be in that cold, unforgiving place! Anyway, I've always liked Norway's Gorgoroth, yet for some reason Under the Sign of Hell is still the only album of theirs I actually own, and I think for that reason I kind of forget about them. I'm not giving them the justice they deserve, because as of typing this post, I genuinely think they may have been the first black metal band I ever witnessed live. The first ever Bloodstock Open Air I attended was in 2010, and they played the mainstage on the Friday afternoon. I was still pretty new to black metal aged 18, and I was probably only listening to Mayhem, Dimmu Borgir and some of the first-wave bands from the '80s like Venom, Bathory, Celtic Frost etc. (which is a totally different brand of black metal to the second wave of the '90s anyway). But I still remember their performance quite clearly to this day. Pest was on vocals and in true Norwegian black metal fashion, the band were adorned in corpse paint, spikes and black clothing. They were great, but the fact they played mid-afternoon on the mainstage outdoors didn't really suit their style in terms of atmosphere! They'd have been better off on the Sophie Lancaster tent stage later that day, but whatever. I'm pretty sure I bought Under the Sign of Hell not too long after Bloodstock 2010, making it one of the first second-wave black metal albums I ever picked up.
This is a pretty short album at just under 33 minutes, but it doesn't really need to go on any longer than that. Simply put, Gorgoroth are harsh! I mean, most '90s black metal 'outta Scandinavia is harsh, but this record is sharper than a rusty razor blade. It has this particularly piercing tone as well as the ever-important bleak atmosphere that is essential to black metal. It's quite difficult to describe... the album isn't as spooky as Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, nor is it quite as lo-fi and sloppy as Darkthrone's Transylvanian Hunger. The musicianship is actually rather good; it may come off as sloppy and chaotic if you aren't really focusing hard on the songs, but if you are paying close attention there's actually quite a lot going on here, in a good way. Some of the tracks like 'Revelation of Doom', 'Krig' and 'The Rite of Infernal Invocation' (before that unsettling windy ambience takes over anyway) are all total assaults of the senses to keep the listener on edge. They're about as violent as black metal gets. Well, in my experience anyway. But the band do slow the tempo and bring doom elements to the music on other songs like the bleak 'The Devil is Calling' and the surprisingly catchy, memorable (!!) riffing within 'Profetens åpenbaring'. Meanwhile, 'Ødeleggelse og undergang' kind of takes advantage of both styles with it's doomy transition that comes in the middle of the track.
As is pretty common in black metal, the riffs are mostly tremolo-picked which is pretty much essential to get that second-wave black metal sound, and apart from 'The Rite of Infernal Invocation', there aren't any solos to speak of. It also sports Pest on vocals. I get that Gaahl is probably the most iconic Gorgoroth vocalist (despite not appearing until 1998), but Pest is totally suitable for Under the Sign of Hell. For most of the album he performs with a high-pitched rasp. He doesn't sound especially unique in that sense, but he's ideal for the songs. The fact he almost sounds off-key at times actually works in the songs' favour. Also, you occasionally get spoken word vocals here and there to enhance the unsettling atmosphere. On 'Blood Stains the Circle' he genuinely sounds like he's trapped in an asylum and screaming for help. Great stuff!
The production is one of my favourite aspects of this album. It's expectedly raw as fuck, yet it feels very well thought-out and constructed all the same. The instruments are audible and I can make out the riffs perfectly. And the drum sound... maybe some of the best-sounding drums I've ever heard on a black metal record?! The tone of the blast beats is just so primal and relentless, and they sound so good!! I don't really talk about drumming in detail all that often. I'm not a drummer, and I find it difficult to sound like I know what I'm talking about (because I don't) when it comes to drums. It's something I really feel like I should work on, but I really want to emphasise how much I love Grim's drumming on this record. It's one of my favourite aspects for sure.
Well, here's another example of a fantastic album I've owned for going on 16 years that has been gathering dust for at least 10 or more of them. I liked it a lot when I first picked it up, sure, but compared to now I was only really a very casual fan of black metal throughout my late teens and even most of my 20s. That's probably a big reason why I haven't given Under the Sign of Hell a lot of attention over the years. Really, I think this is a killer slab of true Norwegian black metal. I don't think Gorgoroth are doing anything especially original or unique here, yet they still have an identity of their own on this album. I won't say it's one of my absolute favourite records of the genre, but it's pretty damn great that's for sure. I have the 2007 CD remaster from Regain Records. In 2011 the band would re-record the album in it's entirety... according to the internet it sucks, so I probably won't make a point of checking out that version anytime soon!
Adam's rating: 8.7/10
Monday, 30 March 2026
Blast from the past albums #10: THE SWORD - Gods of the Earth (2008, Kemado Records)
In this series of posts I'll discuss an album I picked up as a teenager or in my early 20s and haven't listened to in a very long time.
The funny thing about me and my relationship with The Sword is that I picked up Gods of the Earth back in '08 in a slipcase package with their 2006 debut, Age of Winters. I still dig out Age of Winters every once a while, even to this day; I've always been a fan of that album, and songs like 'Freya' and 'Iron Swan' are tracks I like to put in playlists. Yet I've barely touched Gods of the Earth since my teens, despite actually liking it at the time. Even weirder is the fact I never bought any Sword albums that came since, despite seeing them live at the Slade Rooms in Wolverhampton back in 2013!
Anyway, Gods of the Earth is totally worth a revisit, and certainly qualifies for this series of blog posts. Hearing it again now for the first time since who knows when, I'm not quite sure why it's been gathering dust on my shelves for so bloody long. Sonically, it sounds a lot like Age of Winters. The guitars have that similarly fuzzed-up, overdriven sound once again. It sounds deliberately under-produced, but not necessarily in a "raw, lo-fi" kind of style. It feels like they were aiming more for a vintage, organic sound. If they wanted this album to sound clean and crisp, then they would've recorded it that way - this was 2008, not 1978 after all. And considering the strong stoner/doom metal style of the band (at least at this point in their career), it was the correct way to go. I think Age of Winters' production was pretty spot-on, why change if it worked so well the first time?
The songs themselves mostly feel like a natural progression from the debut. They retain the same levels of heaviness - in fact, I'd argue that Gods of the Earth is maybe even heavier than it's predecessor. Just listen to the crushing doom monger that is 'Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians' (I have no fucking clue what a "Hyperzephyrian" is!)! But I also think on a technical level, the songs are a tad more intricate and ambitious this time around. They're not progressive in a way that they transition in and out of different styles or anything like that, there's just a little bit more going on this time. Little melodies and licks that have been interwoven within riffs nicely, stuff like that. But like I was saying before, they're still just as heavy, if not heavier at the end of the day. The riffs once again blend the doominess of Black Sabbath and Pentagram with the fuzzy, stoner tones of a band like Kyuss - and it's done in a way that feels natural and effortless.
On a musical level, I think this album is more impressive than it's predecessor. The only thing that somewhat lets things down slightly (on surface level anyway) is the fact the songs aren't as memorable because of it. Songs like 'Barael's Blade' and 'Freya' etc. from Age of Winters will stick in your head almost immediately after you've listened to them. 'The Frost-Giants Daughter', 'To Take the Black' or 'How Heavy This Axe' etc. from Gods of the Earth require repeated listens for me to really take in. There's definitely a simplicity/catchiness factor lacking here that the debut album didn't have. This sounds like a glaring issue, but considering I enjoyed practically every second of Gods of the Earth after hearing it again for this post, it's really not a huge deal. The album is a good time from start finish, it just has subtle differences that make it a slightly more demanding listen I guess. But even so, I'd still say this album is pretty accessible as far as stoner/doom metal goes. And there's plenty of variety in tempo throughout these tracks too - there's some speed within songs like 'Lords' and 'The Black River'. It's not all slow and lumbering stuff.
Really, if you liked the debut, then there's no way in hell you're not gonna enjoy this follow-up record. Vocalist/guitarist J.D. Cronise sounds identical here vocally, and the songs along with the production still sounds like The Sword. Early-career The Sword anyway. It's a fine follow-up to a great debut. I still prefer the debut, but the fact Gods of the Earth has been rotting away for so long in my collection is sacrilege!
Adam's rating: 8/10