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At first I thought this was a new Dimmu Borgir album, but the album name should have been a hint. This is a covers album, clocking at under 32 minutes, with eight songs that I assume were influences for Dimmu Borgir early on. First off, if you're not much into Dimmu Borgir's over-the-top symphonic black metal, fear not: This album comes off sounding more like a blackened heavy/thrash endeavour—so much so that, if I didn't know it was Dimmu, I wouldn't be able to tell (maybe Dimmu aficionados could). I don't do track-by-track, but here's the track listing so you at least know what's on here:

Black Metal (Venom cover)
Satan My Master (Bathory cover)
Dead Men Don't Rape (G.G.F.H. cover)
Nocturnal Fear (Celtic Frost cover)
Burn in Hell (Twisted Sister cover)
Perfect Strangers (Deep Purple cover)
Metal Heart (Accept cover)
Nocturnal Fear (Celtically Processed) (Celtic Frost cover)

Damn nice selection of songs, most metalheads will agree. Obviously, the band brings a darker, more blackened spin to most of these titles, and they do it right. Even the songs originally sporting clean vocals sound good with Dimmu's harsher style. I like when covers don't massacre the original and, despite the huge difference in style for several of these songs, the band has managed to keep them recognizable. There's just no way someone familiar with the original version won't recognize it here, even on such cuts as "Burn in Hell" and "Metal Heart." I found this album to be a lot of fun. Being a covers album, it's not essential (unless you're an unconditional fan who must own everything the band releases), but there are eight revisited classics here, and I personally find it's always fun to hear a band's interpretation as long as it doesn't suck, and there's none of that here: Dimmu pay a tasteful tribute to these songs on Inspiratio Profanus. Quite enjoyable, much to my surprise.