Dimmu Borgir // Ronnie James Dio Stage // BOA22 // Saturday 13th August 2022

Dimmu Borgir

Eerie shadows were lurking in the dark corners of spring 2018; the spirit that denies, a force able to distort our conception of space and time. Over seven years, deathlike silence filled the halls of the world’s biggest black metal forge, DIMMU BORGIR, whilst powers have been gathering to resurrect the band right in time for their 25th anniversary. Now they have finally marked their return with a vicious work of art that can be defined as timeless in the truest sense of the word: ‘Eonian’. Since their debut album ‘For All Tide’ from 1994, DIMMU BORGIR have always released their epic new works in regular intervals, but this time around, the Norwegians couldn’t tame the beast of their creativity that quickly, and therefore they took the time it needed to slowly weave their collective ideas into these nine new tracks. After having released the live DVD ‘Forces Of The Northern Night’ in spring 2017 which provided a monumental overview of the shows that DIMMU BORGIR had performed with a big orchestra and choir, the time is over in which fans needed to watch the band members on screen – hence now they are ready to storm the stages of the world again. The Light bringers are back – and they’ve come to split apart the heavens.
Ready for a change of pace again as today’s line up has been heavily metalcore laden, it feels right for some death metal as the sun starts to come down. The crowd seem to feel the same way as they pack round the main stage to see the first full theatrical show of the day. After a false start, once the band do enter the stage, the crowd cheer loudly I readiness. Dimmu Borgir do not disappoint as they come out in full makeup and costumes. As the set continues the stage show gets bigger and bigger as large drums come out, masks and heavy streams of smoke. The whole band are captivating to watch as each one draws your eye at some point whether just through their talented performance or as they take part in the theatrical elements of the song. Frontman Shagrath certainly keeps the focus most with not only his deep vocal prowess but also his encouragement to the crowd. Focusing in on the music itself, the band have created a perfectly eerie sound that is still full of incredibly beautiful melodies. The crowd are definitely loving the set too as they loudly singalong and raise their horns in the air. Something I wasn’t expecting however was the amount of crowd surfers making their way over the barrier! It seems that Dimmu can cause all different kinds of crowd reactions but