I know when it comes to bands rerecording their albums I do not agree with the concept, its sacrilegious we all know that. Prime example, when Ozzy Osbourne brought in other players to rerecord "Blizzard of Ozz" and "Diary"? You can’t, and WHY, change a classic. Testament did it for "First Strike Still Deadly" but that was only selective tracks re recorded from their first two albums which after a better production the songs obviously packed a bigger punch while the original cd’s have remained untouched. No problem with that.

Now Dimmu Borgir have decided to do the same with "Stormblast", an album that was originally put out on a small label and since its initial release in 1995 is hard to find. It was not picked up by their current label Nuclear Blast who also is giving better distribution to their debut "For All Tid", and aside from it being hard to find also suffered poor production.

With that information known I see no problem with both original members Shagrath and Silenoz rerecording their much regarded classic Black Metal work. It’s giving it new life, a better one.

The arrangements are basically the same, very haunting, gothic and dark without a heavy hand on the keyboards. The very full orchestration heard on the newer discs like "Puritanical" or "Death Cult" is not present and the pure Black Metal influenced by bands like Bathory is prominent. Heck, even the songs titles and words are still in their native language and booklet photos come from 1994/95. Everything is just sonically better and with Peter Tagrten, who also produced other Dimmu albums "Enthrone Darkness" and "Spiritual Black", keeping to the original arrangements was not to be compromised.

Accompanying this is a second disc DVD which is a full performance of Dimmu from Ozzfest 2004. Even though the band had to perform during the day without full stage lights this does not take away from their persona. The quality of the video is nothing short of a pro shot with picture resolution clear as a bell and better yet are the many low perspective camera angels. Songs performed are 'Spellbound' and 'Mourning Palace' off “Enthrone Darkness”, 'Kings of the Carnival Creation' from "Puritanical Euphoric", 'Progenies' and 'Vredesbyrd' off "Death Cult Armaggeddon". An added bonus is seeing the majority of the American crowd looking at Dimmu Borgir as if the band members had eight heads. Must have been a serious lesson in Black Metal for most.