Top hats off to Dimmu Borgir. While it has been five years almost to the day between the recording of the second of these sets (2012’s Wacken performance where they were joined by almost 100 musicians) the release of the Forces Of The Northern Night (Nuclear Blast) double DVD set is a perfect way to close a simply huge cycle celebrating the monumental Abrahadabra album to its fullest; a cycle that has seen Black Metal’s biggest act fulfil a lifelong ambition of performing with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra (aka KORK) and Choir, understandably described by vocalist Shagrath as “the pinnacle of our career” and complete their biggest headlining run to date.
The first of the two DVDs is 2011’s Oslo performance where, accompanied by the orchestra and choir who had featured on Abrahadabra, ‘borgir wowed thousands in their homeland. Expertly shot, the show begins with semi-transparent drapes bearing the iconography of the album partially masking the classical musicians opening out ‘Xibir’ before they intumesce into ‘Born Treacherous’ and its snaking, coiled opening riff. There follows a few moments as the song unfurled where you wonder how and if dream and day unite, and if the accompaniment will fit, before the marriage is consummated and proven most epic.
The choral/instrumental version of ‘Dimmu Borgir’ (backed by a rapt crowd of thousands of fevered metalheads also raising their voices) brings goose-bumps and could have been lifted from a Howard Leslie Shore score, before the band join in to reprise a song that is a genuine Black Metal anthem and raise it even higher, with Shagrath’s growl and Silenoz’ and Galder’s guitars animating. Any doubts about an S&M (Vertigo) style hotchpotch are disproved most thoroughly as the set continues; ‘Ritualist’ is chilling, dark and majestic as the complementary musicians raise already excellent music to new and most remarkable heights to close the Abrahadabra section of proceedings. The set then goes from great to incomparable with ‘Progenies of the Great Apocalypse’, ‘Serpentine Offering’ and ‘Mourning Palace’ in particular shining, showcasing the best Symphonic Black Metal has to offer, the band in imperious form and enhanced by an exceptional accompanying cast, the becowled choir an excellent aesthetic touch bettered only by the regal embellishment they bring to every song.
Pawing its hoof over on disk two, waiting to explode, meanwhile, is Wacken from the following year, a set that is adamant it shalt not be outdone. Accompanied this time by the Czech National Symphonic Orchestra and the Schola Cantorum Choir, Northern Forces over Wacken plays out differently outdoors, with different instruments infiltrating and positioning themselves at different times, and with the arrangement seeming slightly brassier and less smooth, meaning the feel of the choir and orchestra is altered, though not necessarily in a bad way, as it gives the Wacken disk its own identity. The sound, overall, is more “metal” and the band performance more feral, but it is not as integrated as in Oslo, though the crowd response is more corporal as a trade-off.
The only slight gripe about this remarkable double DVD release is that the set lists are identical, but considering the undertaking that had occurred, it’s a churlish complaint. It does, though, have to be said, the Oslo disk wins, hands down; better presented, produced and arranged of the two, it also has the feel of something unique and tangibly exquisite, a joining of forces in a synchronicitous moment of purity, which is understandable as that was the crowning moment and homeland spectacle for the band. That said, don’t discount the quality of the performance at Wacken, too, especially the dramatic ‘Gateways’ and ‘Puritania’.
The Abrahadabra cycle has closed, with the Oslo performance in particular a spectacular and special testament to a great band possibly at their peak, and Forces Of The Northern Night serves as a fitting document to a special part of Dimmu Borgir’s career while further proving why they stand as the leaders in their field; head, shoulders and skull-endowed kneecaps above any pretender to their throne.
9.0/10
STEVE TOVEY