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I was literally blown away by this one. As Dimmu Borgir has put out one good, albeit predictable, album after another I have come to expect a certain quality. High quality recording, fairly inspired songs, a load of the strangely popular string of finely tuned, well-orchestrated black metal. This is what you get with Abrahadabra... That and a whole lot more!

From start till end this album just gets better and more diverse. Whatever musical toolbox Dimmu Borgir is dragging around must be huge and heavy, just like this album. Huge and heavy as Hell!

For this album they actually went full out, and hired a classical ensemble. And not some rusty cello trio from the outskirts of nowhere. No, they took on the Norwegian Radio Orchestra AND the Schola Cantorum (who won the Tolosa competition in 2005!) - adding more than 100 extremely talented and professional musicians to the outfit. The effect on the normally keyboard-driven Dimmu Borgir is astounding! The sinister grotesque beauty of this unholy combination of classical brilliance and modern power chords and blast beats (not to mention the growling) actually bring tears to my eyes!

Dimmu Borgir even topped it, with the addition of shamanistic throat singing, spoken word, female vocal solos, distorted screams and pure male vocals. Imagine that mixed in with blaring doomsday trumpets, pounding timpani, acoustic guitars and soft violins... The result is nothing short of majestic.

The metal parts are oddly linked to power bands like Rhapsody of Fire and Avantasia, though still dark and heavy as pure Modern Black Metal should be. The album also holds true to Dimmu Borgirs trademark ill-contained anger, aggression and alienation towards the human race.

The guitars are manic electric storms, caught in a cage of insanely timed blast-beats. Bloody fucking hell, this is awesome!

The label "Symphonic Black Metal" does not even begin to cover this musical hybrid - this is something new...

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