DIMHOLT impress!
First of all, with their persistence. Over 22 years of history, they have shown that they operate cool-headedly and deliberately, never making unnecessary detours, always moving in a very clear and consistently fascinating direction. Even back on their demo ‘Aegri Somnia’, it was evident that they didn’t want to be just another black metal band, nor did they care to follow the passing—and forgive me, “fashionable”—trends in extreme music.
And while there’s a reasonable difference between their earliest recordings and their debut ‘Liberation Funeral’, that difference stems solely from their natural growth as a band, and in no way from a shift in artistic direction. Their 2019 release ‘Epistēmē’ was perhaps the clearest proof of this—an album by a band with a razor-sharp vision and a perfect grasp of how to execute it.
DIMHOLT also radiate a particular kind of confidence. A confidence not often found among local bands—and especially not on the Bulgarian black metal scene, which remains surprisingly small. Ten years ago, and again today, DIMHOLT are a band with a definitive, streamlined, unmistakable sound: atmospheric, aggressive, striving toward the metaphysical-monumental, and utterly uncompromising.
After the truly exceptional ‘Epistēmē’ (check out our review here), we had to wait longer for the arrival of ‘MetaForm’. Naturally, this had nothing to do with laziness or creative fatigue, but rather with those chaotic years around the pandemic (remember that?) and the band’s very natural desire to fine-tune every musical detail in their new compositions. When we saw photos of them some time ago at Belgium’s Opus Magnum studio (helmed by the legendary workaholic Déhà), we already knew the album was nearing completion—and that its sound would be uncompromising.
We were right — ‘MetaForm’ sounds downright magnificent, with a clarity, density, and depth that many European bands would envy. The production work by Déhà and DIMHOLT absolutely deserves praise.
Anyone familiar with the tracks on ‘Liberation Funeral’ and especially ‘Epistēmē’ will undoubtedly appreciate the transcendental beauty of MetaForm, in which we find the inevitable influences of heroes like SCHAMMASCH, BLUT AUS NORD, THE RUINS OF BEVERAST, and DEATHSPELL OMEGA, but also plenty of the raw appeal of those classic doom, death, and black metal releases from the ’90s that shaped our musical worldview.
You won’t find any “hits” here—and you should not expect any. After all, this is monumental black metal, with compositions ranging from 5 to 10 minutes. In other words, you must approach ‘MetaForm’ as a journey—an experience that works only as a whole, greater than the sum of its parts.
The album’s opening is absolutely merciless—the diabolically fast riffs of ‘Radiance Of Dying Light’ and the magnificent ‘Totem’ don’t merely hint at DIMHOLT’s intentions; they underline them. The band clearly aims to take no prisoners and leave scorched ground behind. ‘Reality In Timeless Comatose’ blends all of DIMHOLT’s strengths—ranging from mid- to high-tempo passages, from aggression to deep atmosphere.
As often happens with their albums, we find perhaps the strongest material in the final third. ‘To Embrace Profound Stillness’, ‘Tomb Of Molten Stars’, and the epic ‘Tapestry Of Shapeless Eternity’ almost flow into one another, forming an amalgam of cosmic melancholy, universal weight, and otherworldly melodicism—elements that have always been at the core of DIMHOLT’s sound.
It’s hard to say it any clearer: this album doesn’t just deserve your attention—it demands it. Because in an age of cheap consumerism and musical fast food, there are still people who choose to remain steadfast and confident in their creative vision.