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By Mark Derricutt

Artist: Dimmu Borgir

Date / Venue: Sunday October 14th, 2018 - The Studio, Auckland

If you'd told me 20 years ago, I'd be witnessing Norwegian symphonic black metal legends Dimmu Borgir here in Auckland, on a Sunday no less you'd be getting odd looks from my direction. I was that Christian guy with a love of death and black metal, bridging both worlds with a tenuous balance, with Dimmu being of those bands trying to tip the scales.

For 25 years Norwegian-based Dimmu Borgir have been honing their craft, and with each successive album it's been impossible to discount, or ignore the artistic prowess and song writing of founding members Shagrath and Silenoz. Though it wasn't until 2001's Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia I really took notice - due in part to new bassist I.C.S. Vortex's powerful clean vocals that helped take the band to that next level, or established them as a leader in symphonic black metal.

So here we are, for Dimmu Borgir’s first appearance here in New Zealand to support their latest release Eonian. We’ll cut right through the B/S and say up front - Dimmu delivered a performance that was just as epic as their music, feeding a hungry congregation of souls just what they wanted. Gracing the stage in hooded tunics, hiding away corpse paint that would soon "unveil" itself as the band launched into The Unveiling and Interdimensional Summit, accompanied with an impressive light show leaving the band in a mixture of shadow, silhouette and darkness surrounded by light.

As mentioned, it was the powerful clean singing of I.C.S. Vortex that caught my attention - so having a visible and audible lack of hearing that live, with Shagrath standing back waiting to return to the mic as pre-recorded clean vocals played was a let down in an otherwise exceptional performance. This I suspect is more The Studio venue’s sound; from where I was the standing those pre recorded vocals felt quite muddied and lost in the mix - everything else however sounded perfect. 75 minutes of dark, euphoric, bliss.

1. Intro

2. The Unveiling

3. Interdimensional Summit

4. The Chosen Legacy

5. The Serpentine Offering

6. Gateways

7. Sovereign

8. Council Of Wolves And Snakes

9. Archaic Correspondence

10. Puritania

11. Indoctrination [encore]

12. Progenies Of The Great Apocalypse [encore]

13. Mourning Palace [encore]

14. Outro

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