Nice words. Far removed from the truth though – DIMMU BORGIR’s first album in 8 years is not only calculated and risk-free but easily the bands most accessible slab of pop metal ever.

 

Still, these 55 minutes are not without their merits. After all, DIMMU BORGIR were conceived into the depths of early Norwegian black metal and still carry the dreadful atmosphere of those bygone times as well as the ability to mingle melody and aggression into a seemingly straightforward yet somewhat avant-garde mish-mash of styles. That’s the thing though – even when they seem to deliver the goods like the tremolo picking and industrial noise on opener ‘The Unveiling’ or the nifty guitars in 

‘I Am Sovereign’, the band is only too quick to end the more risky and darkened parts and go for the usual sympho metal mediocrity instead.

 

Alas, in 2018 DIMMU BORGIR is more akin to Nuclear Blast colleagues THERION (the current THERION, not the hefty 90s beasts) and NIGHWISH than to modern black metal powers like WATAIN or MAYHEM’s current reincarnation. The layered keys, the God-awful and all-intrusive choirs in 'The Empyrean Phoenix’ and ‘Interdimensional Summit’ are enough to bury what good ideas and sounds ‘Archaic Correspondance’ or ‘Lightbringer’ have to offer.

 

It is given that a lot of the younger metal fans would dig the album’s crystal clear production, choral bombast and imposing synths but for us older dogs tracks like ‘Alpha Aeon Omega’ or ‘Interdimensional Summit’ mostly come off as ridiculous, overtly theatrical and pathetic. All in all, ‘Eonian’ като is little more than yet another one boringly commercial Nuclear Blast release.