Dimmu Borgir

Dimmu Borgir took their name from Dimmuborgir, a volcanic lava field in Iceland whose name translates as "dark cities" or "dark castles", and the Norwegian band has spent the years since 1993 building a black-metal cathedral to match. Shagrath roars up front, Silenoz slashes on guitar, and the pair are the only founders still standing after a lineup that has turned over again and again.

Enthrone Darkness Triumphant, from 1997, shows what that means. Forget raw and lo-fi, this is lavish and theatrical: blast beats and buzzsaw riffs draped in keyboards that swell like a horror-movie orchestra. "Mourning Palace" is the gateway, grim and grand at once. Labels No Colours Records and Nuclear Blast have both carried their records.

The revolving cast has included some heavyweights, among them Hellhammer and Nicholas Barker on drums and ICS Vortex on bass, with Mustis adding keyboards for more than a decade and Galder joining on guitar in 2000. Back home they have picked up Spellemannprisen metal awards in 2001 and 2003, plus a string of Alarmprisen metal honors.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.