Dimmu Borgir "In Sorte Diaboli"

In Sorte Diaboli (Latin for "In league with the devil") is the eighth studio album by Norwegian symphonic black metal band Dimmu Borgir, released in 2007. It is the band's first concept album. A site on the Nuclear Blast website was created for In Sorte Diaboli, in which a new promotional photo can be seen and an audio sample can be heard. This would be the last album by Dimmu Borgir to feature ICS Vortex, Hellhammer and Mustis.

In Sorte Diaboli is the band's first concept album, with a story located in medieval Europe. It is about a priest who begins to doubt his faith, and then ends up taking the place of the Antichrist. "There's this dude that works as a priest's assistant, and after a while he just discovers that he has nothing to do with Christianity", Silenoz says. "He just sort of has this awakening and realizes that he has different abilities and different powers and is leaning more to the dark side." The words "In Sorte Diaboli" are a repeated line in the song "The Chosen Legacy" and the words also appears towards the end of the song, "The Sinister Awakening". The conclusion of the story in the booklet implies that the story of In Sorte Diaboli is not yet finished. This remains to be seen, as their next album, Abrahadabra, is heavily influenced by Aleister Crowley's Thelema text The Book of the Law. IGN named the album the Top Metal Album of 2007.

In Sorte Diaboli received generally positive critical reception. Allmusic gave the album 3 stars and praised the music, saying "[T]here's really great stuff here in the music, the production, in the sound effects". However they criticised the concept and lyrics of the album, writing "Too bad it all melts down when it comes to the concept, which is ho hum at best". About.com was more positive and gave the album 4 stars and wrote that "[T]he songs are orchestral and melodic, but still plenty of punch and darkness". Both Blabbermouth and Metal Hammer gave the album 9/10, and Kerrang! gave it 4/5.

The album cover was rated by LA Weekly 9 out of 25 from their article The 25 Creepiest Heavy Metal Album Covers.

Track listing

All songs written by Shagrath, Silenoz and Galder. Lyrics by Silenoz

1. "The Serpentine Offering" 5:09
2. "The Chosen Legacy" 4:16
3. "The Conspiracy Unfolds" 5:24
4. "The Sacrilegious Scorn" 3:58
5. "The Fallen Arises" (Instrumental) 2:59
6. "The Sinister Awakening" 5:09
7. "The Fundamental Alienation" 5:17
8. "The Invaluable Darkness" 4:44
9. "The Foreshadowing Furnace" 5:50

Release dates:

UK - April 30th.

USA - April 24th.

Artwork based on original paintings by Hans Memling (1440-1493).

Recording information:

Recorded between October and December 2006 at the Fredman Studio.

Mastered at Loud As Fek, Kettering, England.

Produced by Fredrik Nordström, Patrik Jerksten and Dimmu Borgir.