Believer "Dimensions"

Dimensions is the third album by the Christian progressive thrash metal band Believer, released in 1993 on both Roadrunner Records and R.E.X. Records. The album's last song, "Trilogy of Knowledge", is split into four separate parts and tells of the life of Jesus Christ. The lyrics recount events from the Bible (often expressed in first person), and include opera vocals, orchestral instruments, acoustic guitars, distorted guitars, and more. Although the album was critically lauded, the band disbanded the following year, but reformed in 2005.

The pre-production of Dimensions was recorded at Trauma Studios, and was produced by The Trauma Team and Ted Hermanson who did the engineering, assisted by the drummer Joey Daub. Wyatt Robertson and David Baddorf left Believer before the band began recording Dimensions. Jim Winters joined as bassist and also played some guitar parts during the recording sessions. On this album, Glenn Fischbach played cello, Scott Laird played violins and violas, and Julianne Laird Hoge performed soprano vocals. The album was mastered at The Hit Factory, DMS, New York, by Chris Gehringer. The cover art and illustration was done by Dave McKean.

The album was released in 1993 and turned out to be the band's most technical, progressive, and ambitious album. Both Roadrunner Records and R.E.X. Records released it with a different cover art.

The lyrics on Dimensions deal with philosophy. For example, on the song "Dimentia" the lyrics deal with the philosophical paradoxes and the ponderings of Sigmund Freud, Thomas J. J. Altizer, Ludwig Feuerbach and Jean-Paul Sartre about the existence of God. The song specifically quotes Altizer's The Gospel of Christian Atheism, Sartre's Being and Nothingness, Feuerbach's The Essence of Christianity, and Freud's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.


The symphonic metal suite ”Trilogy of Knowledge”, divided to three chapters and an intro, is an over 20 minute epic and Biblical story about life of Jesus Christ and knowledge of good and evil. ”Trilogy of Knowledge” once again featured the orchestral compositions of Scott Laird and soprano vocals by Julianne Laird Hoge.

Re-released December 2004 by Retroactive Records limited to 1000 copies, with three bonus tracks taken from a show 31 October 1989:
12) Blemished Sacrifices (live)
13) The Chosen (live)
14) Stress (live)
(The 11th track is five seconds long and is present on all versions of the album, but is just a band member saying "We love you, take care, bye bye".)

Recording information:

Preproduction recorded at Trauma Studios.

Mastered at The Hit Factory.