Spiritual Black Dimensions

Spiritual Black Dimensions is the fourth studio album by Norwegian symphonic black metal band Dimmu Borgir. It was released in 1999 by Nuclear Blast Records. A deluxe edition was released in 2004 with bonus material. There is also a digipak edition of this album which contains no bonus tracks. The digipak has reflective/holographic cover art. This release featured keyboardist Mustis and the clean vocals of ICS Vortex, as well as the departure of long-time drummer Tjodalv, guitarist Astennu, and bassist Nagash.

Spiritual Black Dimensions
Studio album by
Released2 March 1999
RecordedAugust–October 1998 at Abyss Studio
GenreSymphonic black metal
Length49:14
LabelNuclear Blast
ProducerDimmu Borgir, Peter Tägtgren
Dimmu Borgir chronology
Godless Savage Garden
(1998)
Spiritual Black Dimensions
(1999)
Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia
(2001)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]

The album cover was part of the top 10 of Greatest Heavy Metal Album Covers by Blender magazine in 2006.[2] It was inspired by The Wounded Angel, a painting by a Finnish symbolist artist Hugo Simberg.

Track listing

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No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."Reptile"Silenoz 5:17
2."Behind the Curtains of Night - Phantasmagoria"Silenoz 3:21
3."Dreamside Dominions"Silenoz 5:14
4."United in Unhallowed Grace"Nagash 4:22
5."The Promised Future Aeons"Nagash 6:52
6."The Blazing Monoliths of Defiance"NagashShagrath4:38
7."The Insight and the Catharsis"SilenozShagrath7:17
8."Grotesquery Conceiled (Within Measureless Magic)"Silenoz 5:10
9."Arcane Lifeforce Mysteria"Silenoz, Nagash, Shagrath 7:03
Japanese Edition bonus track
No.TitleLength
10."Masses for the New Messiah"5:11

Reception

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Steve Huey of AllMusic stated that "Dimmu Borgir's arrangements continue to increase in complexity and sophistication on Spiritual Black Dimensions, improving on its predecessors and illustrating the band's musical progression".[1] In Slayer no. 13, Jon 'Metalion' Kristiansen called Spiritual Black Dimensions "a fine case of melodic, over-produced, symphonic metal. If you like this melodic style I can't really think of anyone doing it better […]. No, I wouldn't call this black metal. Read the interview with Funeral Mist for the right definition of black metal".[3]

Personnel

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Dimmu Borgir
Guests
  • ICS Vortex – clean vocals on tracks 1, 3, 7 and 9
Technical staff

References

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  1. ^ a b Steve Huey: Spiritual Black Dimensions - Dimmu Borgir.
  2. ^ [1] Archived May 13, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ The Great Rock & Roll Swindle!. In: Jon Kristiansen: Metalion: The Slayer Mag Diaries. Brooklyn, NY: Bazillion Points Books 2011, p. 419.