Dissection "Reinkaos (Enhanced CD, Digipak, Mexico, Scarecrow Records, SC 06264)"

Reinkaos (stylised as REINKAΩS) is the third and final studio album by Swedish black/melodic death metal band Dissection. The album was released through the band's own label Black Horizon Music, which they had formed "out of the need of taking charge of our own business and making things our own way, without compromise". Reinkaos is also available as autographed limited first edition: CD packed in exclusive embossed slipcase, limited to 1,001 hand-numbered copies signed by the band members; including the music video for "Starless Aeon" and a sticker.

The album is less influenced by traditional black metal and closer to Gothenburg metal or traditional heavy metal than Dissection's former albums, but, according to Decibel journalist Chris D., still "very much Nödtveidt and very much Dissection". The lyrics reflect the occult tenets of the Misanthropic Luciferian Order and are "based on invocations and formulas that have been linked into the lyrics to evoke the powers that they represent. Occult musical theory has been applied in the song writing process as a means of symbolically charging their structures. They have also been written inspired by scientific ideas such as string theory etc. The songs have all been written with the intention of using sounds and vibrations as an Anti-Cosmic tool and they have all been consciously created to be the vessels for these powers."

Tracklist:

1. Nexion 218 01:32   
2. Beyond the Horizon 05:20
3. Starless Aeon 03:59   
4. Black Dragon 04:48  
5. Dark Mother Divine 05:44
6. Xeper-i-Set 03:08   
7. Chaosophia 00:41  
8. God of Forbidden Light 03:42
9. Reinkaos 04:43  
10. Internal Fire 03:20   
11. Maha Kali 06:04   

Time:  43:01  

Enhanced content:

- Starless Aeon (Video)

All songs written by J. Nödtveidt and Frater Nemidial.

Esoteric expressions taken from the book Liber Azerate by Frater Nemidial and the teachings of the Misanthropic Luciferian Order (now known as the Temple of the Black Light).

The album title is stylised as "REINKAΩS", with a Greek uppercase omega.

Also available as limited enhanced autographed and numbered first edition:

CD packed in exclusive embossed slipcase, limited to 1001 hand-numbered copies and signed by the band members; includes video for "Starless Aeon" and a sticker.

Also available as a limited enhanced numbered second edition:

CD packed in exclusive embossed slipcase with red hendecagram on front cover, limited to 999 hand-numbered copies, includes video for "Starless Aeon" and an iron-on patch.

Official tape-version released by Satanic Propaganda Records.

Official music video:

- Starless Aeon

Recording information:

Produced by Dissection with Nightmare Industries.

Recorded at Black Syndicate Studios, Stockholm, Sweden.

Mastered at Cutting Room, Solna, Sweden.

Dissection "The Somberlain (Remastered, Japan, Victor Entertainment, Inc., VICP-5491)"

The Somberlain is the debut studio album by Swedish black metal band Dissection, released on 3 December 1993 by No Fashion Records. It went on to become a highly influential release in black metal as a foundational work for the subgenre known as melodic black metal. It is the only studio album with guitarist John Zwetsloot, who was fired a year later.

The band dedicated the album to Euronymous, who had been murdered in August the same year. This is the only album that features the band's original lineup. The artwork was created by Kristian "Necrolord" Wåhlin. The album was composed and arranged between 1989 and 1993, and was recorded between 1 and 6 March 1993.

Noticing similarities to death metal bands At the Gates, Sentenced and Necrophobic, Deathmetal.org stated that Dissection utilizes black metal's technique, but embraces a different aesthetic from that genre, lacking its "flow and inscrutability." According to No Clean Singing, "Dissection made their name by infusing their black metal with a layer of melody which ensured that each song was memorable, together with strong musicianship and compelling lyrics and imagery. By keeping most of their NWOBHM-isms in the minor scale, they maintained a sense of darkness and foreboding over the blasting, thrashing framework of technically-proficient black metal.

Kyle Ward of Sputnikmusic argued that "Dissection is known for combining intricate, harmonized guitar leads with the raw force of Black Metal", and that "while each song has its own melodic riffs respectively, there are some where the song is full of these melodic riffs, and vocals just as epic and melodic." He also noted the significant stylistic differences between this album and Dissection's following album, Storm of the Light's Bane. Metal Injection's Atanamar Sunyata wrote that "Dissection drew deeply from Bathory's legacy. Unlike their peers, however, Dissection looked beyond the atonal seethings of Under The Sign of the Black Mark, taking direction from Quorthon's later, more epic leanings." He described the album as "steeped in the sinister miasma of black metal's ethos", while noting that the band "discarded less of metal's traditional tropes than their contemporaries. Classical constructs guide the album's course and teeming thrash provides its foundation."

The album was reissued in 1997 by Nuclear Blast Records and again in 2004 by Black Lodge. Black Lodge also released a special edition set in 2005 limited to 666 copies, packaged in a wooden box along with a T-shirt and a sticker. The album was re-released most recently in 2006 by The End Records in a two-disc set, containing the original album, an unreleased live recording from 1995, the Into Infinite Obscurity EP from 1991, a demo from 1992, The Grief Prophecy demo from 1990, a rehearsal from 1990, and the Satanized rehearsal from 1990. All content is remastered, packaged in a slipcase, and is touted as the "Ultimate Reissue". The album was remastered from the original tapes by Håkan Åkesson at Cutting Room Studios in Stockholm.

Though often overshadowed by the band's following album Storm of the Light's Bane, The Somberlain has been well received by music critics and fans. Blabbermouth wrote that the album was released "to critical acclaim and today the power and passion of that release still resonates as bright as it did back then", calling it an "instant classic".

Metal Injection called it an "essential" black metal album, writing that the album "is exploding with addictive, memorable hooks. Singular, unforgettable melodies overlay sinuous, quick-draw dynamics. Dual harmonies are perfectly executed in rapid-fire waves." They singled out the album's title track as "one of metal's greatest moments", describing the song as "delivering transformative, metal-thrashing transcendence." Kyle Ward wrote a detailed review of the album for Sputnikmusic, describing it as "unrelenting, epic, melodic, heavy, somber, brutal, emotional, and technical all in one". He also argued that "For most band's [sic], a CD like this would be their masterpiece, but with Dissection, it's just another album, not to mention their debut."

Deathmetal.org, however, asserts that the album's rock and roll moments keep it outside the "black metal canon", stating that although The Somberlain manages to create an atmosphere, it "falls short of finding a synthesis of feeling and action as underground black metal in its inventive era did."

Tracklist:

1. Black Horizons 08:12
2. The Somberlain 07:08   
3. Crimson Towers 00:50
4. A Land Forlorn 06:40   
5. Heaven's Damnation 04:42  
6. Frozen 03:48   
7. Into Infinite Obscurity 01:06  
8. In the Cold Winds of Nowhere 04:22
9. The Grief Prophecy / Shadows over a Lost Kingdom 03:32  
10. Mistress of the Bleeding Sorrow 04:37   
11. Feathers Fell 00:41
12. Son of the Mourning 03:13  

Time:  48:51  

Part of Victor Entertainment's "Pure Metal" series.

This album is eternally dedicated to the memory of Euronymous and the cursed Mayhem.

The introduction to Black Horizons starts with a phrase being played backwards, that phrase is "Frost is spreading across the plain to welcome the eternal night". This phrase is later used as a lyric on their song Where Dead Angels Lie, on their next album Storm of the Light's Bane.

Recording information:

Recorded March 1-6 1993 at Hellspawn/Unisound studios.

Produced by Dissection, engineered by Dan Swanö.