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| Black. Melodic. Metal. That's Dimmu Borgir - a Norwegian band, one of the most popular black metal bands in Norway and not only there. The starters of Dimmu Borgir were Shagrath, Silenoz and Tjodalv in 1993. Brynjard Tristan, bass, and Stian Aarstad, keyboards, joined. Inn I Evighetens Morke was the first release of Dimmu Borgir, released in 1994 on Necromantic Gallery Productions. After this release, the band became popular and well - known. The same year For All Tid - an album came out. This one was described as dark and atmospheric recording and made Dimmu Borgir even more popular. In 1996 they released Stormblast ( pronounced stormblost), and album which appeared to be one of the most important albums in black metal's history. After the release, the band got respect - became one of the better black metal bands. Stormblast was their last release in Norwegian - to get a broader audience, Dimmu Borgir began to sing in English. The band released a MCD on Hot Records the same year as Stormblast, the new release is known under the title Devil's Path. The MCD included 4 songs. At the same time, Nagash, who played on other bands like Troll and The Kovenant ( Covenant), replaced Tristan to play bass. The keyboardist Stian Aarstad didn't appear on the MCD either, because of duties concerning the Norwegian army. In 1997 Dimmu Borgir released Enthrone Darkness Triumphant, an album, which appeared to be very successful - about 150 000 copies were sold. After the release, Dimmu Borgir became one of the biggest names in dark metal. An interesting thing happened while releasing the album - the lyrics of "Tormentor Of Christian Souls" weren't printed in the booklet. The reason was that Nuclear Blast, the record company, didn't want to be responsible for printing them. Astennu became the new member after the Enthrone Darkness Triumphant release, replacing Jens Petter, who was in the band between the releases of Stormblast and Enthrone Darkness Triumphant. Under the tour which followed, Stian Aarstad had to leave Dimmu Borgir because of some problems he had when participating in some of the performances. Stian was replaced by Kimberly Goss, who was replaced again by Mustis. In 1998 a re-release of For All Tid on Nuclear Blast followed. Later, another MCD Godless Savage Garden was released as well, on the same record company. This MCD appeared to be so good that it was nominated for "Spellemannsprisen" - a Norwegian Award in the metal category. Spiritual Black Dimensions was released in 1998 as well, on Abyss Studios. This album reminded that Dimmu Borgir are the kings of the black metal. After this release, Nagash left Dimmu Borgir to concentrate 100% on The Kovenant. He was replaced by Simen Hestn�s. In 1999 Tjodalv left the band after the tour in New Jersey and Montreal. He was replaced by Nick Barker, the drummer of Cradle Of Filth. |