It took a lot of time and patience to find a track of a Dimmu Borgir that was missing since the end of the "Abrahadabra" tour. So much time ans patience that we could wonder if the band still existed. His last album had not been acclaimed unanimously, and reorganized as a trio, it looked more like a ghost than a band. We had to wait until early 2018 for the arrival of a new single as a prelude to this tenth album, "Eonian". The pressure is colossal on the shoulders of Shagrath, Silenoz and Galder. Dimmu Borgir is more than 20 years old and has to prove that he has a future while many fans can't follow him in this drift away from a black metal scene that has never really accepted him among its members.
And it's not "Eonian" that will clarify things, amplifying the orchestral and symphonic counterpart with a grandiloquent theatrical and epic dimension. The album is listened to like a movie soundtrack, as if Tim Burton had let a dark side speak. The duo formed by 'The Unveiling' and 'Interdimensional Summit' sets the tone. The choirs occupy a central place, just like the keyboards which bring the symphonic counterpoint while Shagrath remains discreet, more storyteller than singer. In fact we find a tone close to Therion or even Epica but with a poisonous charm.
This charm is going to make effect all along the record, the keyboards are the main thread. We strongly feel an esoteric side, like a link with a dark side and a certain old-fashioned idea of black metal, not violent but which addresses the soul. In this perspective Dimmu Borgir does not impose any limits and offers songs that are not easy to access but intense. Council Of Wolves And Snakes' is emblematic of this idea. Surprisingly, it sees the band sailing towards a folk tinged with a shamanic spirit connected with the forces of nature. After this master stroke, we find this strength in 'The Empyrean Phoenix' and 'I Am Sovereign' with this symphonic side so present. The crude violence is more diffuse but can burst to surprise better as on 'Lightbringer' and 'Archaic Correspondence' which find the epic black force. Finally the journey ends up with 'Rite Of Passage', a bombastic conclusion that sounds like the end credits of a movie.
"Eonian" is a strong work of a free band decided to go wherever they like without being told what to do. It is difficult to say if Dimmu Borgir will succeed in convincing, but they have released a record with a strong emotional power that deserves to be listened to beyond a few careless listenings.