Dimmu Borgir Tickets

This was my fourth time seeing Dimmu Borgir live; they've never failed to put on a terrific show in my experience. They didn't introduce Brat and Cyrus who replaced the exiled ISC Vortex and Mustis; guess they chose not to attract attention to the past squabbles. I sure hope, though, that they won't make a habit out of using female vocals in their recordings; that's just so wrong on so many levels. As expected, the setlist included a lot of the stuff from the newest Abrahadabra, some old-school Dimmu from Spiritual black Dimensions, and of course, some old favourite standbys like Progenies of the Great Apocalypse and Puritania, as well as the new instant classics like Serpentine Offering. Was so good to see them again! This time around, Dimmu brought at least two other Norwegian bands with them (not sure about the origins of the fourth). Their fellow countrymen Enslaved were wicked, I decided to buy their album after the first song of the set list and will now make a point out of getting to know their stuff better; they are well-worth it. Their latest album is reportedly heavier on melodic element than the previous ones yet still sounded heavy enough to still be firmly rooted in the extreme Scandinavian metal. The first opening band (Dawn of Ashes?) gave the impression of having put more effort into their costumes than into their music, and the second one (Blood Red Throne?) wasn't even interesting to look at. Not sure if their sound setup or technicians were to blame for the dismal acoustics of both openers; all you could hear was base. I absolutely relate to most metal bands' fear of being seen as selling out or making any kind of a marketing effort, yet, I wish they had at least overcome that fear enough to repeat their names and a have a little bit of interaction with the crowd.