• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

It's been years since I paid attention to anything Dimmu Borgir released – not a hard feat considering this is their first album in eight years – and I thought I'd give this one a shot to see if I can at least tolerate them now.

The answer is yes. Eonian grabbed me from the first listen and has been on my playlist for a while now. It's no surprise that the production and musicianship are top notch here, as the guys have been at this for a long time and were always on the polished end of the black metal genre.

While I find that the keyboards are a bit much here and there, overall I find that compared to some of the past material I've heard, this time Dimmu Borgir have struck a nice balance between the melodic/symphonic style and the rawer, heavier style that managed to grab me this time around. Basically this is a mix of beautiful, sometimes soothing melodies, a bit of a dark vibe, and some kick ass black metal, plain and simple.