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.