in eager anticipation of this year's dimmu borgir live set at wacken festival, i thankfully took the opportunity to grab some re-issues of older dimmu records nuclear blast produced in respect of the band's new album "eonian". still nb did not re-issue the "godless savage garden" e.p. which came out in 1998, in between "enthrone darkness triumphant" and "spiritual black dimensions". it served as a little appetiser and to bridge the wait for "spiritual...".
two new and exclusive songs found their way onto this release. "moonchild domain" and "chaos without prophecy" are two strong efforts and typical for the late nineties era dimmu borgir. heavy song-writing taking the best of black and death metal combined with epic keyboard arrangements. two re-recorded songs of the first full length "for all tid" round out the a-side. the b-side consists of an accept cover song ("metal heart") and three live recordings. solid e.p. in my book.
i snagged a copy of the back on black re-press from 2008 on ebay. back on black did a full re-press of the dimmu back catalogue to that point ten years ago and i think the whole run is pretty decent. no difference here. sturdy gatefold with nice clear with blue splatter vinyl. unfortunately the seller sent the record not removed from the cover sleeve, even though i requested it (idiot!). split on the top seam was the result. fixed it the best i could. anyway, love the drawn artwork in particular. back on black. 2008.
