Dissection – Reinkaos (2006)

Bishnote: Iya! I've been pretty absent from this blog for a while now, but I've been hoarding all these reviews ready for my return. I'm still here, watching. Honest. Blame Elliott.

1. Nexion 218
2. Beyond the Horizon
3. Starless Aeon
4. Black Dragon
5. Dark Mother Divine
6. Xeper-i-Set
7. Chaosophia
8. God of Forbidden Light
9. Reinkaos
10. Internal Fire
11. Maha Kali

Elliott: …

Bishop: So are you going to say something?

Elliott: It’s a great melodic death metal.

Bishop: I'm spinning this record for the first time. The intro's gay as fuck, but the first song's making up for it - albeit it being somewhat repetitive. Does it get better? The word "great" definitely isn't the first one I'd reach for.

Elliott: I love the intro. Rad the lyrics and let yourself be transported to the anti-cosmic satanic church. Such a great record. The mix is really nice if a little too clean

Bishop: Yeah, the mix is nice, but you can’t polish a turd. I listened to the whole album without actually “listening” to it - it just washed over me. It’s not awful, but there’s nothing that reaches out and demands me to listen to it.

Elliott: At least we finally disagree on an album! Yes! I've done my job.
Actually, I can kind of understand where you're coming from. If you
don't like melodic death metal it probably won't do much for you.

Bishop: So go on then, what sets it out from other death metal albums?

Elliott: Maybe it’s just the feeling I get when listening to it, like I’m in some evil satanic place with a satanic priest, or whatever they’re called, preaching over music. Beer is a wonderful thing. Okay, I haven’t listened to it when sober. Seriously, I like the melodic parts. I’ve always enjoyed melodic death metal. Heavy, but melodic without it being whiny metalcore.

Bishop: Maybe I need to neck a few to appreciate the album? Even then I think I'd end up doing something else whilst listening to it - it doesn't feel like it demands my attention.

Elliott: Listen back to it. Take in the music. Listen with headphones. Do it at night.

Bishop: Even though I didn't believe you one bit, I did just that. And you know what? It's grown on me. Sure, I wouldn't get excited to sit down and listen to it, but I think it could happily find a place on my playlist. I just think as an album it's still a bit repetitive - but as individual songs, I quite like it.

Elliott: I was a bit disappointed to find the band had departed from its black metal roots after Jon got out from prison (long story), but when I put it on... It's got a weird quality to it, very melodic, very uplifting, plus some of the best satanic lyrics you'll ever find. Anyone who thinks Satanism is just "kill this, burn that" needs to read these lyrics. Personally 'God of Forbidden Light' is my favorite track. I do agree, as an album it gets to be a bit long and repetitive, but by themselves the songs work very nicely. Should we start with production?

Bishop: Production is surprisingly clean, but not sickeningly so. I think it's well suited, really gives off this sonic vibrance some death metal albums lack - you can really feel like you're getting swallowed up by this record.

Elliott: Dissection have always had good production, much cleaner than most black metal bands - even in the 90s - but it was never a metalcore production, I think you know what I mean by that. The production on this is clean, but like you said it's not ultra clean. Most modern day death metal, excluding some ultra kvlt bands, have this modern deathcoreish production that I can't stand. This has a good production, the only thing I would have done is turned up the bass.

Bishop: So, as a verdict, I assume I'm in standing the in good camp, and you're in the very good camp?

Elliott: Well, a few more points we can talk about, one of the great things about this album is the vocals, Jon's voice is such that you can actually understand the words, even non-fans of death metal can understand what he's saying. And like I said, his lyrics are a trip, all about anti-cosmic luciferianism, which is a very interesting view on the world (read more here). The drums though I find are overly simple, it would have been nice to have a bit more fills and double bass.

Bishop: Yeah, actually. I really liked the vocals, some good range. Normally with death metal I get a little bored of the monotone screaming, but this is good. I never noticed the drums - but maybe that's because they are unremarkable. I'll have to spin it again to properly listen.

Elliott: And you can tell Jon felt what he was saying. Sadly, he committed suicide shortly after this release. He wrote some damn good riffs for this. Yeah the drums are meh. They're goodm but it's like Metallica. If someone didn't point them out I'd forget they existed. Special mention has to go out to the song Mahi Kali which, along with God of Forbidden Light, takes you on this weird trip if you listen right. Great mellow vocals too. The solos are pretty nonexistent but they add some melodic touches. A lot of previous fans were pissed that this record wasn't fast (no blast beats), but if you ask me it wouldn't work if it was amazingly fast.

Bishop: No, it'd be a total mess if it was any faster, but that's fanbases for you. Saying that, it's easier for me to say that with this being my first exposure to the band.

Elliott: I've heard the other records, they're very good but this was a completely different beast, much less black metal in it. Overall I think we both like it. We agree!