A lot of people commenting on the bassist, ICS Vortex, missing from the live version. He is one of the great voices of metal. Back when you did Borknagar - Winter Thrice, he was the second person that sang. "The groaning, moaning sound of this frost, A blinding eternal blizzard. Seasons aligned and now under the sign, Of crisp eternal winter" Dimmu Borgir does have orchestral parts written into their songs.

Dimmu Borgir writes their songs this way, they're not meant to be performed by the band only without the orchestral elements. That's what makes them stand out. Other bands add some symphonic parts to finished songs, while Dimmu composes metal symphonies. Glad you noticed!

Dimmu Borgir is the first band that got me into metal 15 years ago. When I first heard them, I was like wow! What is this? As a teenager, It was so much more amazing than anything else I was listening at that time (pop, rap, rock). The darkness, the orchestra, the growls, the double bass intensity, everything pulled together in such a majestic way! It totally blew open my musical world! They have always remained one of my favorite metal bands of all time. The songs are all originally designed and composed with the orchestral elements. Their albums also have fully orchestral song/skits in their songs, they are beautiful, so satisfying. Check out Gateways, Mourning Palace, or Council of Wolves and Snakes.

"The name is derived from Dimmuborgir, a volcanic formation in Iceland, the name of which means "dark cities" or "dark castles/fortresses" in Icelandic, Faroese and Old Norse.

Yes please! Mourning Palace was the best song on this concert! Totally worth your time. Please give it a try.

Since you are interested in bands that utilize orchestras, I'd suggest you to check out Septicflesh :) They recently released a show with a live orchestra too.

This is now my favorite react channel. I like seeing a trained ear listen to what so far has been great suggestions. I would like to see you react to Psyopus's Imogens Puzzle or Duct tape smile.

They're a Symphonic Black Metal band. Most of their songs sounds like this, also on the CD's. More Dimmu, please !!

The Choir Sequence was originally sung by VORTEX (Ex Bass Player) !

Thank Mustis for the orchestral amazement. It took using all of those people live to make up for him no longer being on the band. And ohhh man… to be able to hear this track for the first time again would be incredible.

They're one of my favorites and definitely my favorite black metal band. Their keyboard player is classicaly trained and he composes all those for them, which like you said makes them different, and that algún was the first one where they had also the whole orchestra recorded for the album, it really was the first album where I truly felt they found themselves. As others have pointed out, the missing clean vocals from the bassist that left were amazing and they're very missed, but I think they've done great regardless. They started out rougher and you can see how the one members influence really grew on them and he kept getting more freedom. There's funny videos of when he joined and they're on the tour bus and he can't stand listening to the other's music and when it's his turn to choose he plays only classical and others can't stand it. But I think it's that stress they have that really works. Great review and hope you dive more into them! Cheers

The mastered version is amazing. This was good, but you should try it on your own to see the difference. Great song though.

I think you'll also love Scepticflesh. Check out the new live video they put out for The Vampire from Nazreth just this year. It's going to be a live DVD too.

That performance made me nostalgic for the Vortex... The band used to have a base player who did clean vocals. The par where there was the chorus the base player was singing alone operatic style...

Hi! Great reaction! Please react to Greek symphonic death metal band Septicflesh and their song "Portrait Of A Headless Man". Their guitarist has a masters degree in classical music and composition.

This consert was sent live on national norwegian tv 😀

The orchestral parts were written by their original keyboard player Stian Aarstad. @Critical Reactions

Now you have to react to The Funerary Dirge of a Violinist by Carach Angren

Yess i have been waiting for this one forever. Been in love with these guys since i was about 10 years old.

More dimmu!!

You should check out progenies of the great apocalypse played on the piano by Mustis, former member of dimmu borgir. His works with the band are absolutely my favourite dimmu songs, he is very talented both as a composer and as a pianist. if you search for "progenies of the great apocalypse - mustis unplugged" you'll find it. Great video btw!

I looked but I didn't see if you had done any Septicflesh. They feature an orchestra for all four of their albums. I think they've even used the same orchestra for most of them. All of the songs are good.

I love your critical reviews, I never miss them and I have met some bands like Caligula's Horse. Similar to Dimmu Borigr, SepticFlesh has just released a highly recommended live concert with orchestra!

You Might try Dimmu Borgir- Gateways? or Cradle of Filth- Nymphetamine?

Wow...you went crazy today! Thanks for getting videos out! Don’t burn yourself out! Really liked the galloping throughout the song. Something a bit different than a straight up tremolo. The orchestra was pretty bomb too. Usually it’s an afterthought but it’s incorporated as part of the song here. Love it! Thanks for the video!

We, who not deny the animal of our nature We, who yearn to preserve our liberation We, who face darkness in our hearts with a solemn fire We, who aspire to the truth and pursue its strength

A couple of my favorite Dimmu songs Fear and Wonder The Serpentine Offering Broderskapets Ring Puritania Sorgens Kammer Del II Kings of the Carnival Creation

I learned all about chromatic mediant progressions from dimmu borgir

Septicflesh has released a dvd with live orchestra. You'll like 'the vampyre from nazaret' Includes a white voices choir

The orchestra is not an afterthought, the songs are composed this way.

Ha you found it ^^ I used to listen to this when walking to high school :p long ago already...

In 2003 the two biggest, most popular, mainstream "black metal" bands, Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth, each put out a one off album on a larger label with a bigger budget and with a full professional orchestra throughout the whole album. Dimmu Borgir's album was Deathcult Armageddon (which this song is from) and Cradle of Filth's was Damnation and a Day. Both were excellent, even though real black metal fans are not supposed to like either band. Given your response to this song, you owe it to yourself to check out both albums in their entirety.

Venomous Kiss of Profane Grace by Limbonic Art is another song carried by the “orchestra” if you wanna hear something like that

My copy of this album that I bought back in ~2004 has symphony-only versions of a couple of the songs on a bonus disc. Nice twist on trying to imagine the song without the symphony, now you can imagine the song without the band. :D

The orchestral parts are on the studio versions too. Done by the keyboardist. Amazing live show on this occasion.

Just so you know the orchestra was necessarily added to this song for this performance. Dimmu writes all the orchestration band it is all on the original recording. There past 4 or 5 albums have all had full orchestras on the recordings.

Thanks for the shout-out it's pronounced Knight-zel in case I ever get another,keep up the awesome content

Dimmu is a great "starter" black metal band. They are very melodic and are a lot easier to listen to than a lot of black metal out there, if you aren't used to extreme vocals, blastbeats, and tremolo picking. I grew up listening to black metal, and one of the bands that helped get me into it was Dimmu. I got to see them live in like 2006 but without an orchestra and it was good.

Check out Emperor: The Loss & Curse Of Reverence (Live At Halford, Berlin / October 1997)

Woodwind trills augmenting a double bass blast beat. Just amazing. The live version is SO much better than the studio version. The choir really shines too.

This band is known for symphonic black metal. This song like many others work well with the orchestra because most of their music is designed with this in mind.

The orchestrations was originally composed by their old Keyboardist Mustis even all the litttle Ornaments of the flutes. Check him out playing solo on a grand piano kzfaq.info/get/bejne/atloa9mprdC7oqc.html also check them out playing gateways live kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jq2flM5lrrmngIk.html

I've heard these guys' studio albums where the orchestral elements are done by the keyboards, so seeing this live with a full orchestra was pretty rad. I like these guys, though they're not among my favorite BM bands (like you said: "standard metal"). They're one of those bands that I wouldn't mind if anyone put on, and I'll pull out Enthrone Darkness Triumphant or Death Cult Armageddon on occasion, but that's about it. BM vocals, like death metal vocals, definitely take time to get used to. That "croak" style was heavily influenced by Lemmy Kilmister from Motorhead, who really spawned the entire genre. Venom, the first black metal band that coined the term, was basically a Motorhead rip-off band with occult lyrics.

yes, studio version

welcome to jon snow reacts ....love the channel brother keep up the good work

Hi, little suggestion : Skálmöld & Sinfóníuhljómsveit Íslands - Kvaðning.

How did I miss this one! Def check out the mastered one. Anything from these guys at all really Maybe blood hunger doctrine?

Great reaction. Should check out Satyricon - Live at the Opera, too, maybe Mother North, being the classics as it is.

you should check out the version with Vortex. He was their bassist and has one of the best voices I've ever heard.

Love Orchestras? Try Haggard... maybe songs like In a Pale's Moon Shadow, Awakening the Centuries, Origin of a Crystal Soul, or The Final Victory.

Epica is an excellent symphonic metal band. Check out the live recording of Cry for the Moon!

So this song was made with the symphonic elements

While it's great live, they're missing alot since getting rid of their old bassist who did the clean vocals. There are live videos out there with their old lineup, keyboards and aforementioned bassist replacing orchestra and choir for the "original" feel of the track.

Love the reaction please react to dissection where dead angels lie

Watch Septic Flesh's latest live video... They play live with a full orchestra. Septic Flesh - Vampire Of Nazareth (official live video)

Try to find Therion's concert with live orchestra The Miskolc Experience - some mix of classical pieces and their own songs

One live performance you should definitely check out is Vesania - Marduke's Mazemerizing

Something similar is the track that I've suggested in the other video of band Emperor. Melechesh - Multiple truths, that is. Pls get to react to that.

So you should probably know, if you don't already, that all the music for this song was written by their old keyboardist Øyvind Mustaparta back in 2002.

It was actually written to be performed by "Mustis" instead of the orchestra and "ICS Vortex" instead of the choire! I bet you the original version is as good as the orchestral version.

We're all here talking about Orchestra's, BTBAM did an entire live playthrough of their concert in studio with a bunch of orchestra members

Every Horror Fan knows the Main Sequence of this Song : It's the HELLRAISER MAIN THEME !!!!Pinhead loves this Song for sure !

They need a whole choir to replace the Vortex

Satyricon - Mother north live with orchestra.

You should check out Enslaved soon. They have been consistently bringing out classic albums each time. Listen to Feathers of Eolh from their latest album.

You HAVE to check out Satyricon's performance with the Norwegian Opera (if you have to do one song, do "Mother North", it's a classic, perhaps their most celebrated song)

dimmu borgir: In Death's Embrace, Entrance, mourning palace, A Succubus in Rapture

That choir part pales against the out-worldly singing of ICS Vortex in the original song!

You should react to any song from the album abrahadabra it was written with an orchestra

definitely do behemoth- o father o satan o sun

If you liked this, check out the song Gateways from the same show

You Should check out Sojouner, Deluge. It's melodic, epic Black metal with folk infused in.

No septicflesh MMXIX reaction yet.... Check that show out.

Haha, post-ICS Vortex DB needs an entire choir for his part...sounds about right. :D

You should check out Therion and Haggard. They are serious symphonic metal bands that really blend the orchestra and metal very well.

Hey man i'd love if you made a reaction to Bloodborne - Suite live with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, great channel man!

Yeah all of dimmu borgir's music is written with an orchestra taken the role generally if the lead guitar, listen to more of their stuff (studio) and you'll see

You should check to the morning palace at wacken

If you're looking for more orchestra styled metal check out Septicflesh- Persepolis

Hi! Please react to Pelageya - Ой, то не Вечер (Sochi 2014). And Пелагея - Рано-рано (Pelageya - Early-early) 2008. It' amazing! What a voice!!

Oh mate, go check Rhapsody of Fire ;)

If you liked this you should check out Septicflesh - Vampire Of Nazareth (Live at Sinfonia Diabolica). Full orchestra and full choir on stage with them.

He's right about symphony not adding much to most metal bands. And Dimmu Borgir being unusually good in this regard I actually think Metallica's S&M album orchestrated by Michael Kamen features some of the best symphonic metal(Call of Ktulu in particular) because it focused on embellishing songs that werent really made with an orchestra in mind and somehow mostly succeeds. Which is a real achievement.

Satyricon - Phoenix

original version please ;)

Very off-topic, but the color of your eyes is mesmerizing.

How about a dive in on Chimp Spanner? Hard to pick a song/album but lets say "Under One Sky"?

The album version also relies heavily on orchestral pieces. A lot of their work combines metal with more classical instruments and it brings a lot of depth to their work.

This John Snow knows something

just in case you needed a reason to miss ICS Vortex and Mustis from this band, a boot to the face of what they used to produce

I swear the Black Clouds and solve linings album of Dream Theater was inspired by this stuff or the other way around. Don't know the timeframes.

OMG dude you must react NIGHTWISH - POET AND THE PENDULUM - It's amazing

Good to see you reacting to Demon Burger. This is an excellent live performance, and I'm not even that big a fan of the band. Excellent video!

I was expecting Batman to show up halfway through

I'm not sure why but parts of this remind me of Razia's Shadow by Forgive Durden, which is not metal at all. I think its the brass. I wonder if anyone here has heard that.

I would say that metal often stands in opposition to the mundane. In the case of Dimmu Borgir evoking supernatural qualities. They are not interested in music about relationships or love. Love is overall an extremely uncommon theme in metal music.

What you talk about is my main issue with "symphonic" metal in general. Most of it is written as metal song with orchestra just doing block chords over the whole thing with nothing interesting going on. Really great symphonic metal is written from an symphonic standpoint with the conventional metal band woven into the composition, not just symphonic elements slapped on top of a regular power/death/black/speed metal song.

i have to push the like putton it´s Dimmu Borgir FFS

I've been into blackend anything now days Thrash black Deathcore blackend I do like me skeletonwitch!

This is what happens when you have classically trained pianists in black metal bands ^^