Dissection The Somberlain, released in 1993 is well ahead of its time. Main Man Jon Nödtveidt (Rest his soul) is in my mind a god dammed genius. He formed the band whilst still very young but still managed to put out material that was far ahead of anyone in the black metal game at the time. I can’t give this guy enough praise for the landmark legacy he left on death and black metal and even the spiritual influence he left on me.
The Somberlain opens up with some very melodic but brutal as hell riffage, but his band does not flood proceedings with endless blast beats, they instead give everything a chance to breathe and let the natural melodies come through. Don’t worry this band can blast when need be, and when they do, it kicks the crap out of most bands, but they choose melody and song progression over brutality, which in a strange way makes them more brutal than just about anyone in the scene. This is their first release but sounds rather clear and Jon’s guitar playing is still rather advanced and melodic for anyone in the black metal scene but even more so considering his young age.
Ok so we open up the album with some of the best Black / Death Metal ever released, this is music fit for gods. Jon carves his stamp on the entire black and death metal scene with these first two songs and then we get a rather well crafted acoustic guitar interlude and again it breaks into more relentless death metal. This is not an undercooked first album like so many we’ve heard or reviewed here, this is straight into it, and i guess by the time this came out in 1993 the scene was really taking a hold, so to get noticed you really did have to stand out with talent and sound, and these guys certainly did!
The band had the extremity of black and death metal but played with the skill and accessibility of more mainstream bands like iron maiden especially in the way the band used the twin guitar harmonies to create multiple layers to their sound.
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