Dimmu Borgir: Death Cult Armageddon
Dimmu Borgir can go harder or more theatrical, depending on the album, but Death Cult Armageddon’s the Goldilocks album. It’s got enough of everything that makes the band great in perfect balance.
And what’s in that everything? Death metal about Lovecraftian demons raising an army to overtake humanity, with strange, alien vocal delivery, backed by a symphony orchestra. But also, it’s got arguably the band’s most accessible, lavish, and honestly, best track, “Progenies of the Great Apocalypse.” The orchestra takes the lead, and it just sounds the most like medieval gun-toting armies rushing to battle an eldritch force with argent energy (Editor’s note: this record’s a perfect example of why ICS Vortex has been so sorely missing from this band since his last contribution on In Sorte Diaboli). If you listen to nothing else on the album, every burgeoning metalhead needs that one.
