Music review: Dødheimsgard - 666 International (1999)
Been more than a month since my last album review, things have been busy and my willpower always takes a hit come summer. And what a way to resume! Dødheimsgard's never equaled anomaly is such a treat to listen and write about.
666 International starts exactly where the previous EP, Satanic Art, left off. Literally: that cold, uncannily syncopated piano that wouldn't be out of place in an avant-garde Lynch film is taken from the aforementioned EP's last track, "Wrapped in Plastic".
The album seamlessly weaves extremely contrasting segments of angular mid-tempo dissonance very reminiscent of Ved Buens Ende, dizzying walls of abrasive (but crystal clear!) noise à la Thorns and eerie interludes that really tie the whole together. But what's incredible is how they managed to create such a consistent and all-pervading atmosphere in this situation!
It's cold, weird, mechanical, hypnotic and much more. It defies understanding but you'd miss the point if you tried. It'd be like analyzing Serial Experiments Lain: you certainly can, but you'd clearly be doing it wrong, you're supposed to immerse yourself mindlessly into the weird aesthetics.
And they managed this while juggling with such an ambitious amount of experimentation, from the overall album/track structures to the savant use of electronic drums that'd put IDM icons to shame… no wonder the traditional black metal fans shunned it.
I could probably continue praising it for at least twice this length, but let me conclude: the end of 90s was undoubtedly black metal's creative peak (yes, even compared to the 3rd wave) and amongst all the ambitious cyber-weird "black metal for a new millennium" works - I could mention Mayhem, Abigor, Thorns and even Satyricon! - I consider it as the most accomplished. By far.
This masterpiece of Art with a capital A doesn't deserve anything less than 10. Yes, this means I don't have any objective nor subjective criticism to give it; although I must confess it took me some time to reach that conclusion.
