Progenies of the Great Apocalypse...Deconstructed

I was thinking of reviewing Winds' latest release, but I decided that it was too unremarkable to say anything about. After all, Winds is an unremarkable band. No, I thought this time around I might do something a bit different. Lately, I've been listening to a lot of one song. One song that's completely and utterly out of character for me to be listening to. That song is Progenies of the Great Apocalypse, by Dimmu Borgir of Norway. I'm not quite sure what prompted my listening to this song, but I found myself fixated on it. It's inexplicably addictive, for reasons I'm not too sure of.

Dimmu Borgir's presence in black metal has caused sizable controversy over the years. Arguably the most mainstream of all self-proclaimed black metal bands, they've become the marketable alternative to a genre based around the tenets of hating just about everything. Because of this, and because of the constantly decaying quality of their music, they've earned the disdain of millions of fans, all while acquiring the love of others. As it stands, Dimmu Borgir's latest release, In Sorte Diaboli, is hardly black metal, and hardly good music, but that's a story for another day. The topic at hand is Progenies, arguably their most popular song, off of Death Cult Armageddon. What is it that makes this song so popular? Why have I been listening to it ad nauseam for the past two days or so? It needs to be deconstructed. And I'm going to do it.

First thing's first, Progenies offers absolutely nothing on the guitar. Aside from a few galloping power chords, Silenoz has nothing to his name, and I see no reason for the inclusion of Galder in this band. As far as I can tell, there is no lead guitar. Progenies may be the most simplistic song I've ever heard as far as the guitar is concerned. But that's really not the point of the song. Nor has it ever been the point in any black metal, mainstream or not. The point lies in the atmosphere.

Atmosphere finds place in myriad sources. The most obvious in most forms of metal is in the vocals. Vocals can be the deciding factor in a band's genre, and, as I've made it so painstakingly clear in the past, they can make or break a band. They, too, play a huge part in this song. In Progenies, there are three sources to the vocals. Principally, the vocals are presented by Shagrath, but ICS Vortex, too, lends his vocal chords. Interestingly enough, Abbath, of the legendary Immortal, has a guest appearance on Progenies as well. Now, Shagrath has never been known for his world-class vocals. His gurgling vocals, as they are presented cleanly in the beginning of the song, aren't impressive, at all. In order to add depth to his sound, we find that he overdubs himself several times throughout the song. That way, there's range. Certainly, nothing remarkable there. People have been overdubbing vocals since the 40s, and black metal is no stranger to this practice. Vocally, the talent lies within Vortex.

ICS Vortex is an incredible vocalist. His work on Borknagar's Quintessence and Arcturus' The Sham Mirrors is legendary. His voice is strangely hypnotic and eerie. It is Vortex who adds atmosphere where Shagrath falls short. When the time comes for Vortex to stop with the unimaginative bass lines and belt out his all too short, harmonized vocal solo about halfway through the song, the entire thing slows down. Progenies suddenly goes from painfully standard black metal to something much, much more. When the listener sees Vortex standing, meteors falling in the background, signifying the coming Apocalypse, belting out his strangely alluring melodies in the music video, Progenies evolves. Vortex's vocal break is perhaps the single most incredible section of the song.

If I could stop going down on Vortex for just a minute, I'd like to shift focus to the keyboards. Mustis is an excellent keyboardist. He seems to know how to not fill songs with wank, but rather with feeling. The keyboards in Progenies are its backbone, plain and simple. Straight up, you can not make a song based around simple power chord progressions. This is the folly of pop punk. Without the aid of keyboards, Progenies is fucking terrible.

Mustis creates an air of epic feeling throughout the course of the song. It tricks the listener into believing Dimmu Borgir's guitarists have talent. This is no easy feat. The symphonic interlude to this song is brilliant, I'm going to say it. With Shagrath's growl-like whispers over them, it steps this song up a notch. Without any shadow of a doubt, the keyboards in this song keep it being absolutely horrendous.

This is the section where I talk about bass. Bass is superfluous. Vortex might as well be playing a tennis racket in this song. That's all I have to say.

And finally, we arrive upon the drums. I have huge respect for Nick Barker for the following reason: he's the only person in the band to not have adopted a seriously retarded pseudonym. Aside from that, I guess he's pretty good at drumming. Barker's got some serious skill when it comes to blast beats. He's insanely fast. Unfortunately, he utilizes none of this skill in Progenies. Still, the drums are very solid, and compliment the song nicely.

To recap, I'm still not sure why I like this song so much, but am completely unimpressed with the rest of Dimmu Borgir's discography. When broken down, one can see that Progenies really isn't that great musically. The keyboards and symphonic elements are expertly composed and Vortex is spectacular, as always, but other than that, this song is conspicuously unremarkable. It is the presence of Mustis and Vortex in Dimmu Borgir that keeps them from sucking. Progenies is only as great as it is due to their input.

I made this post for no particular reason other than that I needed to think about this song and its allure and record it somehow. To any and all tr00, grim, kvltists that only listen to Manes and Shining, fuck off. I'm quite aware that you think Dimmu Borgir forfeited their title of black metal once they started selling albums and having fans, I don't need to hear it from you.

Scars of Chaos - Humanitarian War Machine (2007)

This is a very interesting album. Scars of Chaos is a French symphonic black metal band. Now, as it should be pretty clear at this point, black metal in general doesn't interest me to a rather high degree. This, however, is rather refreshing, for whatever reason.

I believe this is Scars of Chaos' fourth third studio album. I haven't bothered to check out the others, but if they're at all like this one, I may just do that. Think of Vesperian Sorrow with heavier symphonic influences and you have Scars of Chaos. The vocals are very similar, as well as the instrumentation. I have to admit, though, I was a bit hesitant when I first looked at the name of this band. Generally, bands with the word "scar" in the name can be immediately dubbed as crap and mocked accordingly. (See: Scar Symmetry). Also, with such heinously moronic pseudonyms as DarkOne and Evil Tongue, I wasn't all that ready for anything impressive, but rather for some sickening Cradle of Filth bastardization.

I was certainly surprised. What I got was something like Stormblåst era Dimmu Borgir. You know, before they started writing songs that sucked? You remember that, don't you? Anyway, this is very much in that vein. The guitar parts are dominated by the ever-typical black metal tremolo picking style, but it's done enjoyably. I think the most drawing part of this album would probably be the symphonic aspects, which are complimented by the vocals, though. Bear with me, here. I'm going to have to use the band members' incredibly stupid pseudonyms, because I can't seem to find their real names.

A New Era of Light starts off with a keyboard generated symphonic line, which immediately transitions into a hugely chaotic assault of sound. Evil Tongue's retarded name does his vocals no justice. He seems to have mastered the black metal sound. He goes from high pitched screeches quickly to low, guttural grunts at the correct times; a feat largely unexplored in most forms of black metal, even by its supposed pioneers. This man has talent. His vocals certainly add an extra feel of power to the songs.

As stated before, the keyboard work on this album is very well done. Angelus, as he wishes to be called, creates a very dark atmosphere with his orchestrations, which I believe is the feel they were going for. The most notable pieces on the album would be the introduction to A New Era of Light, the interlude in Funeral For a World, and the introduction to Darker Than Hell. However, the keyboards are omnipresent throughout the entire album, constantly creating a moody contrast to the otherwise chaotic guitar parts.

This album is just very well put together. They manage to make their slower introductions tasteful and maintain their raw and ferocious black metal edge. For my favorite song, I would pick Son Excellence de la Douleur. It most accurately depicts the pure range of sound that this album has to offer. Quality symphonic black metal from an unexpected source. One thing, though. Scars of Chaos, change your fucking names. You look like idiots.

8/10

You'll notice that I'm going to now rate albums on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, 1 being the lowest. That way you'll actually know what I think of things, rather than simply attempting to guess from my vague and confusing reviews.

Turisas - The Varangian Way (2007)

Finland won't relent. They have the folk metal genre completely dominated. Turisas has been around since roughly 1997, but have only released two albums, Battle Metal and The Varangian Way. The Varangian Way is their newest and, in my humble opinion, finest album.

People seem to have that "I hate new music" complex with Turisas. Battle Metal receives far too much praise, honestly. It's undoubtedly a fine album, but it's production quality is incredibly lacking, and production is critical in this sort of music. One honestly cannot create a feel of epic battle with a cheap keyboard and lacking guitar power. That all changed.

The Varangian Way is refreshing. The guitars are crisp, the keyboards are excellent, and I feel as if they're putting far more thought into their songs. Granted, there's not much difference in the tracks on this album, but they're creative, nonetheless. An example of said creativity would be best shown in the case of In The Court Of Jarisleif. The song is just brilliant. Incredibly folky and fun. In The Court Of Jarisleif is one of the most intelligent folk metal songs I've ever heard. That's saying something, too. Because folk metal is a pretty stupid genre. When you're listening to it, you feel as if you're right in the middle of some sort of brawl.

As for my two favorite songs aside from In The Court Of Jarisleif, I'd say and The Dnieper Rapids and Miklagard Overture stand out the most. The former is just really fun to listen to. At times, it gets a little bit tedious, but it quickly picks up. The settings chorus sections immediately exonerate the band for any boring fillers they have. Excellent. The latter is the relative epic of the album. In terms of folk metal, its 8:18 length is rather lacking, but it, again, makes up for this in sheer rockage. Mathias Nygård shows that he's not just a yelling idiot like so many of his contemporaries. Amazingly enough, he can actually sing. Incredible!

All in all, this is a moderately solid release. Turisas is a great folk metal band, but the genre is quickly stagnating. The bands are running out of Norse mythology to sing about and the well of catchy, melodic keyboard lines is running dry. Because of this, nothing that Turisas will ever do will ever be all too outstanding, but rather very solid in the scheme of folk metal. I'd recommend The Varangian Way, regardless, because it is very fun.

7.5/10

Circus Maximus - Isolate (2007)

I was waiting for something to force me to actually write in this again, and here it is. Circus Maximus is back with their second album entitled Isolate to follow up their acclaimed first release The 1st Chapter. I'm going to explain just what it is that Circus Maximus is all about.

This band isn't reinventing progressive metal. In fact, they're really not bringing anything new to the table, at all. What they do do, however, is take the best aspects of already established, talented bands and combine them into a tweaked, refined version of their own. If Symphony X and Dream Theater were to combine sounds, you'd get Circus Maximus. And, in that sense, they're breathing life into a genre full of ever-expanding crap.

Technical music is becoming incredibly popular. Because of that, tons of bands are emulating Necrophagist in a never-ending quest for record sales. It seems as though Circus Maximus may have stumbled onto the secret of creating progressive metal without the aid of overzealous, pointless guitar masturbation.

Surprisingly enough, I never wrote a review about this band's first release, The 1st Chapter. Long story short, it's brilliant. It may be the best debut album of any band I've ever heard, save Savage Circus' Dreamland Manor. It has reached critical acclaim amongst the progressive metal community since its release in 2005. With vocals borrowed from bands like Rush, and instrumentals borrowed from bands like Kamelot, Symphony X, and Dream Theater, Circus Maximus continues to impress with Isolate, a feat many thought would be impossible.

Upon initial listening, I was not all that impressed with this album. It wasn't bad, sure, but it didn't have the hooking power of the first release. Then, as I listened to it a bit more, something seemed to have clicked. It was at this point that I recalled my first listening to The 1st Chapter. I had written off the band as another struggling, copycat progressive band. Only after having listened to the album several times did I begin to see it for what it was. Sure enough, Isolate seems to follow the same trend.

During the recording of this new album, the band's keyboardist, Espen Storø, left the band to be replaced shortly after by Lasse Finbråten. One wouldn't be able to tell the difference, had they not known about the change. I applaud Circus Maximus on an excellent choice of a new keyboardist. With that said, I'll divulge some information on a few of the tracks off the album.

The album starts off with A Darkened Mind, which is follows a rather typical progressive formula of a few bridges and choruses that break into a keyboard/guitar interlude which then comes back into another chorus. But, in its predictability, however, A Darkened Mind manages to start the listener off quite well. The chorus is catchy and fun, which offers interesting transition into Abyss.

I'm not going to lie and say Abyss' lyrics aren't totally gay, because they are. Obviously, there are very dark undertones to this song, but I feel as if they may have gone a little overboard with the references to slashed wrists and leaping into some sort of abyss. The thing about this song is that, if you're not listening to the lyrics, you wouldn't be able to tell that it's got darker themes to it. Michael Eriksen's high pitched falsettos make it very hard to envision what they're attempting to communicate, but if you listen, you won't miss it. Anywho, this song is rather awesome, lame vocals aside. The guitar work about 3/4 in is flawless. I very much enjoy it.

Wither seems to be the most popular of the album, which perplexes me. It's the song they released on their Myspace before the album actually came out. As I stated, this is strange, as I feel Wither is probably the weakest song on the album. It's understandable, though, because it's the most radio friendly. I have nothing else to say. Rather weak song, obviously driven by the desire to reach a new audience.

Sane To More is spectacular. Much like Biosfear, off The 1st Chapter, it's completely instrumental and full of epically progressive goodness. I've listened to this song far too many times. It really showcases the new keyboardists obvious talents. Very, very good.

In the interest of keeping this review enjoyable and not tedious, I'll cut it at that. There are 5 more songs on the album, and each of them is very impressive.

My criticism is as follows. Isolate is vocally and instrumentally identical to The 1st Chapter. There is no new ground covered. Whether this is good or not is up to the listener, but I feel as though they could have shifted a bit. Hell, at least Adagio has been experimenting with heavier vocals. It's not really all that bad, because they have a style that rocks and they're good at reproducing it while keeping it fresh. I'm looking forward to their evolving a bit with their next release, though.

All in all, very impressive album. I'll be sure to purchase it when it comes out some time in August.

9.5/10

Sun Caged - Artemisia (2007)

I think this blog may be shifting to nothing but reviews of new music. Lord knows there's enough of it coming out that I can do that. That way, I'm not harping on things that people already know, but rather providing insight for things others possibly don't.

Sun Caged is progressive metal from the Netherlands and this is their second album to date entitled Artemisia. Now, it's really nothing out of this world. Sun Caged has always seemed a little bit bland to me. The problem with Sun Caged is that they should be an instrumental band, but aren't. I always find myself liking their instrumental tracks a lot, but being bored with their songs that have vocals. It may have something to do with Villarreal's complete inability to put any sort of feeling into his vocals, but who knows.

With that said, the instrumental tracks on this album are damn impressive. In fact, my only gripe is the vocals. This is a great album until the vocals come in and I get put to sleep. For instance, Engelbert the Inchworm is a great song because it contains no lyrics and some awesome progressive wankage. Bloodline is awesome until they decide to break off from awesomeness and go for some The Police-esque vocals that really do make me want to cringe.

What does this mean? Progressive metal really does completely rely on the singer. I can't remember how many times I've enjoyed a song or two only to have it ruined by a sub par singer. These vocals really aren't completely intolerable. They have their place; it's just not a place of greatness. Once I adjust myself to them, they're really not too terrible. But there's really just no reason to listen to them when Russell Allen exists.

With this criticism aside, the guitar isn't too shabby. Marcel Coenen is a formidable guitarist. In fact, check out this video with Marcel and Bob Katsionis melting face. There are some great solo breaks on this album that are incredibly enjoyable. It's very solid in that sense. Marcel and Rene Kroon really know how to harmonize with each other. The other issue, however, is that the drums are a little weak.

To summarize, this is moderately entertaining progressive metal. Marcel does a fine, fine job, but the rest of the album is rather lacking. It's okay for casual listens, but it's really not something I'd go out of my way to recommend to someone. Good luck.

5/10

I'd have something to talk about here if I wasn't still obsessing over Paradise Lost.

Symphony X - Paradise Lost (2007)

This is the best album of 2007. In fact, this is the best album of the 21st century. As far as I'm concerned, only two albums can hold a candle to this as far as 2007 releases go. Circus Maximus' new album and Adagio's Archangels in Black might compete with this, but there's absolutely no way they'll outdo it. I'm so glad I can depend on Symphony X to never suck, because Kamelot's last album really made me reevaluate American music.

Symphony X is an American power / progressive metal band from New Jersey. As it stands, they represent the finest in modern progressive metal. Along with Circus Maximus and Andromeda, Symphony X remain the kings of the genre. But what sets them apart from everything else right now? Symphony X is only improving with age.

Andromeda's latest 2006 release entitled Chimera didn't measure up to Extension of the Wish in any sense imaginable. After only two albums, they seem to be fizzling out. Kamelot has fallen victim to the ever present dumbing down of American music. Circus Maximus offers a welcome and refreshing outlook for the power / progressive metal genre. Their 2005 release entitled The 1st Chapter was brilliance. One can only hope that their upcoming album will reproduce its genius. As I stated, Adagio is a major contender as well. They have been extremely consistent. I am extremely intrigued by Archangels in Black. These bands have only popped up in the past couple of years, however. Symphony X has been dominating the genre since 1994.

Dream Theater, in their heyday, monopolized progressive metal. It's become increasingly obvious that they're no longer on top of their game. Octavarium was less than desirable and Constant Motion, their new single, left me wondering why they felt they needed to rip off 80s Metallica. At Symphony X's inception, they were destined for glory.

Michael Romeo really is a genius. As the major songwriter for Symphony X, most of their material has stemmed from his design. What we've gotten from this is seven full length albums, each of them better than the last. As a guitarist, Romeo writes some of the best neo-classical guitar work I've ever listened to. Pinnella compliments him in a fashion that leaves me speechless. But what I actually first noticed about this album were the vocals.

There are really only two vocalists that are so good at what they do that they make me forget they're actually vocals, and not a separate instrument. These two vocalists are Russell Allen and Hansi Kursch. Allen's vocals seem to be empowered on this album. Previously, his vocals were absolutely stunning. This effort, however, has brought forth new styling. Allen seems to have taken a heavier approach with this album. He actually sings closer to a growl than the the usual power and progressive metal falsetto. It works perfectly. Absolutely perfectly.

There are subtle hints to earlier work all throughout this album. The title track, Paradise Lost, is heavily influenced by The Accolade, off of their 1997 release The Divine Wings of Tragedy. It also contains what I find to be the most hypnotizing and awesome chorus ever. The final track, Revelation (Divus Pennae ex Tragoedia), too, fades out with the main tune to The Odyssey, the title track of their 2002 release. Excellence.

Really, I can't comment on this album. I'll just say that it's brilliant. One criticism, however. I would have liked for there to have been a 20+ minute song on it. The sheer quality of the songs here makes up for it and then some, though. I'll be purchasing this album when it comes out, for sure. Words cannot explain how much I am looking forward to seeing this band at the end of this month.

Listen to this album. Listen to it for the rest of your life.

10/10