The pop sound of the irresistibly catchy odes to Satan, “Stand By Him” and “Satan Prayer,” are enough question whether this is serious or a goof on metal.
Sweden’s Engel barrels down the road at a great clip for the first four tracks of Threnody, bashing through some modern metal with incredible energy and polish.
It’s the McDonald’s ball pit of metal, a gloriously fun and dirty pile of sounds with a solid undercurrent of good songwriting and metal knowledge beneath.
Eight tracks paint a robust and varied portrait of the band’s sound: “Beyond” snuggling with Depeche Mode while “Die Macht” does a Rammstein’s boot-stomp.
A sad record. Not in a boo-hoo way, it’s more of a hands-in-pockets, head down, kick the can as the weight of existence slows your movement kind of way.
Dimmu Borgir may have waded even deeper than usual into the realm of symphonic melodrama this time around, but they’ve still got the riffs, so fuck you.