Dimmu Borgir - Forces of the Northern Nights (Live DVD Review)
Dimmu Borgir - Forces of the Northern Nights (Live DVD)
Released: April 28th 2017
Dimmu Borgir line Up -
Shagrath - Vocals
Silenoz - Rhythm Guitar
Galder - Lead Guitar
Dimmu Borgir Online -
Seven years ago Dimmu Borgir dropped Abrahadabra arguably their most daring album of their illustrious and often controversial career. The following years since the release saw the band touring around the globe, culminating in a showstopping milestone in Oslo where they played the album along with fan favourites with a full-fledged orchestra with the intent of releasing a live DVD release. Unfortunately since then, the band disappeared off the face of the Earth and for some reason or another, the forthcoming DVD entitled Forces of the Northern Nights was never released. Until now!
Sadly, It’s with much disappoint I say; It wasn’t really worth the wait. If this had been released in 2012 when It had been intended, I would have extolled to you the wonderful virtues it does contain. Because it’s not a BAD release by any stretch of the imagination. The sound is immaculate, the orchestra adds a much needed depth to older, less organic material, songs such as ‘Progenies of the Great Apocalypse’ and ‘Puritania’ sound absolutely monumental. Though, this matters less for the newer material which just sounds exactly as it should, which may be good to some people. Though I generally prefer a more rough edge when it comes to hearing my favourite bands live. If i wanted everything perfect, I could have just put on the studio album.
Unfortunately, not everything is great.
Because this release, from a visual standpoint, disappoints on almost every level. The quality of the visuals are extremely lacking, with the overall package containing a flat, lifeless quality, similar to staring endlessly at a dead corpse on a morgue table. Probably. The lighting should add depth to the performance, but here it just washes out the band, because as great as this DVD sounds (even that could be better). It’s production value continues to be overly poor.
Another issue this release has is a general lack of fan engagement, you never feel as if you’re there in the room with the band. There’s just a general lack of energy from the crowd. So much so, you kind of wish you could jump through the screen and casually slap the mobile phones out of the people lucky enough to have witnessed this in person. The second release filmed at Wacken serves much better in this regard. But that’s just the nature of a Wacken and it’s mostly just an add-on as you can find this performance on Youtube, if you wanted too.
Basically this release is only really for the truly devoted fan. The ones who have stuck with Dimmu Borgir throughout their career, hoping they’ll finally release their much anticipated new album. This DVD serves as little more than a cash grab, a cheap and inexpensive way to maintain interest in a band who haven’t dropped an album in seven years.
Grab a copy here or Better yet, just wait for the new album instead.
6/10
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGoak4ISCPU&w=720&h=480]
