Are Dimmu Borgir sellouts?
It seems to me that there are two kinds of bands that people label as “sellouts.” The first kind are bands that sacrifice musical integrity for popularity. The second kind are bands that get labeled as sellouts by people simply because they become more popular. I will give you an example of each (which will bring us to the point of this post).
Metallica. Their first four albums are brilliant examples of speed metal and have stood the test of time. The problem is that when the creative force behind Metallica, Cliff Burton, died unexpectedly, they were just another speed metal band. Well, it seems that the rest of the egomaniacal band couldn’t handle that. So what did they do? They produced an album with the horrid Bob Rock (he even wrote and played some of the music) that would make them big rock stars. And it worked. They are now big rock stars who churn out un-memoriable albums that the masses dig. That is an example of a true sellout.
Dimmu Borgir. They started out as one of cookie cutter black metal bands of the time. Nothing wrong with that, you gotta’ start somewhere, right? Anyway, they produced pretty good “true” black metal for some time, and then a shift towards more technical and symphonic black metal began. I am assuming that this was something the band wanted to do for artistic reasons, as the black metal elitists didn’t like it much, and the general public didn’t care. So, they continued on this track, their albums became more complex and majestic, and eventually, with the release of “Death Cult Armageddon”, they started getting recognition with a larger audience. Mind you, I think that a lot of this new audience are a bunch of wankers, but that isn’t the point. The point is that a lot of the black metal community are calling Dimmu Borgir sellouts, yet DB never sacrificed their musical integrity. On the contrary, they progressed musically. They are being labeled as sellouts only because thier musical progression happened to catch peoples attention. I say more power to ‘em. Now, some might argue that because their music progressed over time, they are no longer “true” black metal any more. Well, shit, Gorgoroth’s music has progressed and gotten better over time, would you call them sellouts? If you do, fly to Norway and tell it to their faces, you will probably get stabbed.
I think I made my point.
This entry was posted on May 22, 2008 at 12:55 pm and is filed under Uncategorized with tags black metal, Dimmu Borgir. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
May 22, 2008 at 10:38 pm
i am a big dimmu borgir fan. i like all of their albums, i’m not as big of a fan of in sorte diaboli but there are some good songs on there. i do think that they made the songs on that album much more catchy and dumbed down the lyrics much. it doesn’t even sound like silenoz to me anymore. maybe he has just grown or maybe they did change their style to make it more appeasing to the masses. but there is a difference between making a decision to change your music for artistic reasons and by chance selling more albums vs. making the decision to change your music just to sell albums.
May 23, 2008 at 1:09 pm
I would have to agree that In Sorte Diaboli isn’t their best work. I’ve noticed that most bands have their “crowning moment,” and I think that (at least so far) Death Cult Armageddon was Dimmu Borgir’s. I guess only time will tell.
June 17, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Hello.
I totally agree with you’re view upon Dimmu Borgir and their progression as a band and musicians. I myself being a musician (guitarist of an extreme metal band) know that you have to “find what works for you” and that is not the same thing as selling out. As I see it, Dimmu Borgir has gone their own way, doing “their thing”. And by doing that they have gained a bigger audience, good for them.
And I agree that “In Sorte Diaboli” isn’t their best album, my favorite is probably “Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia”.
June 21, 2008 at 8:30 am
Somehow i missed the point. Probably lost in translation
Anyway … nice blog to visit.
cheers, Dispersed
October 6, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Greetings,
It’s great to see other people do not think that DB are sellouts, I have been hearing it for so long now and it’s so annoying…I think that it’s good exposure for the band.. for them to attract different audiences…because the more money they get the better, after all they are human and have to eat and pay bills just like anybody else, I think that’s what some people always seem to forget.
And labeling them sellouts just because of that is absolutely ridiculous.
October 18, 2008 at 12:19 am
You not only made your point. You Nailed it.
Hails from Ceylon \m/