In the spring of 1994 I started buying a new and short lived Swedish magazine called Metal Zone. For a couple of issues Jon Nödtveidt (guitar/vocals) did a few of reviews, wrote in the "Extreme Zone" did interviews with Bathory and Emperor etc.
Got really impressed with his writing. Metal Zone also did a interview with Jon from Dissection. You could say I was a fan even before I had heard The Somberlain just based on all the great texts he wrote and what he said in that interview.
Should mention that the Dissection drummer Ole Öhman wrote a couple of interviews with Carcass and At The Gates. Did reviews etc.
Got really impressed with his writing. Metal Zone also did a interview with Jon from Dissection. You could say I was a fan even before I had heard The Somberlain just based on all the great texts he wrote and what he said in that interview.
Should mention that the Dissection drummer Ole Öhman wrote a couple of interviews with Carcass and At The Gates. Did reviews etc.
Jon and Ole wasn't apart of Metal Zone for more then a few issues and they didn't have nice things to say about the magazine that had covers with shit bands like Bon Jovi and Clawfinger.
The hardest music that made the cover of it was probably Metallica, Pantera and Megadeth. It also had a bunch of AOR music articles so it wasn't the perfect magazine.
But if it wasn't for Jon's writing and that interview I probably wouldn't have heard Dissection until a couple of years later. Actually when I heard the name for the first time I thought they were some Cannibal Corpse sounding band not anything wrong about that but clearly they didn't sound anything like that.
When I came over a copy of The Somberlain in the summer of 1994 it was spectacular. I do still remember the first time listening to it in my bedroom and being completely floored by the music. It was a new formula for me yet it felt like something that summoned up every inch of extreme Metal music.
Know about the ancient debate were Dissection a Death Metal band or a Black Metal band. This is probably going to piss off some younger readers but when a 18-20 year old tells me that Dissection is a Black Metal band period, just shut the hell up about a band and scene that existed long before you were even born. I'm not out to offend someone but sometimes you just had to experienced those days.
I think on The Somberlain the band has a much more Death Metal feel to it then on the more blackened Storm Of The Light's Bane (1995). Remember in the very first Dissection interview I read that Jon said they play Death Metal. Is any of this important? Well no. But also yes because it's a topic I can discuss for a very long time preferable with someone in my age as me or older.
For me Dissection lead me into Black Metal that the album was dedicated to Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth (1968-1993) from "the cursed Mayhem" and the ties that the band had with other Black Metal bands in Scandinavia. Soon thereafter I bought Emperor, Marduk, Immortal etc. albums.
Anyway lets move on. The feeling I got when I
first got the record it was like something very personal something that "no one else" knew about of course there were thousands of people just like me.
But the feeling of knowing about how amazing Dissection was it felt like everyone should know. Soon everyone did know but for awhile I felt like a very "selected" is the best word I can describe it as.
The material on The Somberlain was written as far back as 1989 to 1992. The already mentioned Jon and Ole were joined in Dissection by the longtime bassist Peter Palmdahl (1989-97) and the amazing rythm guitarist John Zwetsloot (1991-94).
Everyone should know the Dissection history, that they had originated from the small Swedish town Strömstad (approx 6 300 people) near the Norwegian border.
Before The Somberlain the band had released the demo also as a 7" Into Infinite Obscurity (1991) on the French label Corpse Grinder Records. Also the demos The Grief Prophecy (1991); The Somberlain 4-song demo from 1992 and also the Promo '93 with Where Dead Angels Lie and my favorite cover song of all time Dissection's version of Elisabeth Bathory originally written by Tormentor.
In March of 1993 between the 1st to the 6th of that month they recorded their debut album in the Hellspawn/Unisound Studio with Dan Swanö. More about the production further down. The studio had already made a mark in the Swedish Death and Black Metal scene with bands I don't should have too mention.
The opening song Black Horizons was the newest track on the album the music was written by Nödtveidt & Zwetsloot in Oct. 92 and the lyrics was written by Nödtveidt a month before that. With its 8 min 10 sec Black Horizons is the longest song on the entire album. It starts of with a backward played phrase. Isn't until 2 min into the song that the vocals starts. The song itself sounds probably the most Black Metal like on the album, it has an acoustic guitar playing in parts of the song. Also that classic King Diamond/Heavy Metal scream done by producer Dan Swanö. A perfect opener and one of the best songs on this masterpiece.
The title track The Somberlain was my favorite song back when I first started listening to Dissection. With that amazing opening guitar playing sure that Nödtveidt was a great songwriter but his guitar skills aren't talked about as often. In my book he's the 2nd best guitar player just behind Euronymous. Anyway The Somberlain is the second longest song on the album 7 min, it was written by Nödtveidt alone the music in June 92 and the lyrics December 91. If Dissection is to be associated with one song it's likely many will think of The Somberlain it's there anthem song one could say. Actually this song doesn't appear on the 4-song The Somberlain demo from 1992.
The instrumental Crimson Towers is "just" an acoustic guitar played by Zwetsloot alone who also wrote it. Out of the three instrumental songs I think it is the weakest.
The only song that Nödtveidt co-wrote music with bassist Peter Palmdahl was on the song A Land Forlorn. The music was written in June 92 the lyrics dates back to December 90. The band often played it live in the 90's and on The Rebirth of Dissection tour in 2004 but was dropped after that.
On some gigs in the 90's Heaven's Damnation was used as the opening song and with its fast paced start it suits for that. Even if I personally preferred the At the Fathomless Depths/Night's Blood opening. Anyway the entire Heaven's Damnation song was written in April 92 the music is another Nödtveidt & Zwetsloot co-written one. with a great acoustic guitar which adds much to the mood of the song.
Another one they used to open gigs with was Frozen both in the 90's and also in 2005. The song was entirely written by Nödtveidt himself in December 91. It also appears first on The Somberlain demo from 1992. Definitely a fan favorite also, one of mine as well the verse when Jon sings:
"Tears in my eyes turns into fire
as where I belong
The cold within, it chills my skin,
my heart and soul
In ecstasy I shred myself
to release what's held within
In solitude I'm having my pride
I, Transylvanian son"
is just pure magic. It gets me every time I hear it and sends chills down my spine because it's so fucking brilliant.
The second instrumental song Into Infinite Obscurity is much better then the first one. This one dates back to 1991 and is on the Into Infinite Obscurity 7" that I wrote about earlier.
In the Cold Winds Of Nowhere was another music collaboration by Nödtveidt & Zwetsloot written in Oct. 91. It also appeared on The Somberlain demo from 1992. This album doesn't have any flaws I would say but in my opinion it's the 2nd weakest song on the record. But don't get me wrong! The song is something few bands only could've imagined to write in their entire career.
Only music written by both drummer Ole Öhman and Nödtveidt is on The Grief Prophecy/Shadows Over A Lost Kingdom. The song Shadows Over A Lost Kingdom dates all the way back to November 1989 the same year that Dissection started. It also appeared on Into Infinite Obscurity 7" that version is of course completely different both are great but I do believe that I prefer the 7" version a bit more. At least today on the 3rd December of 2018 but it could change. I'm very glad they included it on the compilation The Past Is Alive (The Early Mischief) (1997) that Necropolis Records put out.
Like I wrote The Somberlain is a flawless album and I would not change anything. But the weakest song of the non-instrumental ones is in my opinion Mistress of the Bleeding Sorrow. It's of course still great also I think that the version from The Somberlain demo from 1992 sounds a little better. It's more raw and harsh of course then this version, yet again very glad it's on The Past Is Alive.
The instrumental by Zwetsloot Feathers Fell ends of this masterpiece and it's the best of the 3 instrumental songs he composed. I often used this one as an ending song on many my mix cassette tapes back in the day. If it had 41 seconds left on a side it was a great way to fit another song onto them. Actually yet again I do prefer demo version with vocals and drums it's 51 seconds and was also used to end cassette tapes with. But both versions are genius so you can't go wrong with either of them.
And that's all the songs on The Somberlain like most debut records it's a lot of "old" demo songs re-recorded. The Past Is Alive does include many but not all of them, but there's been reissued versions of the album and deluxe ones that fixes that if one wants all those songs. But this post is about the 1993 version of The Somberlain the one I grew up listening to.
The production by Dan Swanö was truly amazing. The Somberlain set a new standard for MANY other bands in the scene. Also got to mention the classic amazing cover artwork done by the legendary Kristian "Necrolord" Wåhlin.
Got to do a comparison with the follow-up album Storm Of The Light's Bane that was released almost two years later on Nuclear Blast. I often say it's my favorite Dissection album and my 2nd favorite album of all time. Only beaten by De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas by Mayhem.
Well how much better is really Storm Of The Light's Bane? Extremely little in my opinion when I listen to The Somberlain all memories comes back and I almost change my mind which is the better one.
Many bands even old ones adopted the Dissection style of melodic Death Metal and a ton of newer ones like Naglfar, Vinterland, Gates Of Ishtar etc. It almost got ridiculous with how many Swedish melodic Death Metal with hints of Black Metal popped up.
The style however isn't what I really enjoy except for the records by Dissection, Unanimated and Dawn there's very few melodic Death Metal bands that I like. When done properly it's amazing but take a band like Vinterland their only record is nowadays are praised as something genius. Back then me and my friends used to hate and laugh at all "Dissection clone" bands. I still do that!
When Jon and Vlad was arrested in December of 1997 for murder I was devastated for my own selfish reasons because it meant no more Dissection. At least it felt like that Jon would be doing 16 years in prison or something like that. Being 17 years old at the time and being a huge fan I was truly gutted.
We saw the Live Legacy release in 2003 recorded at Wacken Open Air of 1997 after the murder of Josef. The recording had already circled in the scene and it was released as a bootleg called Frozen In Wacken (1999).
What about Reinkaos (2006)? No thanks... I think it was great that Jon did the Rebirth of Dissection got a new lineup for the band together and did tours. However the songs on Reinkaos sucks... The sound, production, songwriting, arrangements are all terrible.
Sure I think that Maha Kali is a great song even if it sounded quite dated like something from 1996-97 by another band. Other then that its just boring sounding songs on that album. I've tried MANY times and it never gets any better. Actually don't even own a copy of it for myself anymore.
The Somberlain will always be remembered for years to come even at its 50th anniversary it will be regarded as one of the best albums of its time.
Anyway thanks if you read the whole text for a life changing record in this 38 year old man life.
The hardest music that made the cover of it was probably Metallica, Pantera and Megadeth. It also had a bunch of AOR music articles so it wasn't the perfect magazine.
But if it wasn't for Jon's writing and that interview I probably wouldn't have heard Dissection until a couple of years later. Actually when I heard the name for the first time I thought they were some Cannibal Corpse sounding band not anything wrong about that but clearly they didn't sound anything like that.
When I came over a copy of The Somberlain in the summer of 1994 it was spectacular. I do still remember the first time listening to it in my bedroom and being completely floored by the music. It was a new formula for me yet it felt like something that summoned up every inch of extreme Metal music.
Know about the ancient debate were Dissection a Death Metal band or a Black Metal band. This is probably going to piss off some younger readers but when a 18-20 year old tells me that Dissection is a Black Metal band period, just shut the hell up about a band and scene that existed long before you were even born. I'm not out to offend someone but sometimes you just had to experienced those days.
I think on The Somberlain the band has a much more Death Metal feel to it then on the more blackened Storm Of The Light's Bane (1995). Remember in the very first Dissection interview I read that Jon said they play Death Metal. Is any of this important? Well no. But also yes because it's a topic I can discuss for a very long time preferable with someone in my age as me or older.
For me Dissection lead me into Black Metal that the album was dedicated to Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth (1968-1993) from "the cursed Mayhem" and the ties that the band had with other Black Metal bands in Scandinavia. Soon thereafter I bought Emperor, Marduk, Immortal etc. albums.
Anyway lets move on. The feeling I got when I
first got the record it was like something very personal something that "no one else" knew about of course there were thousands of people just like me.
But the feeling of knowing about how amazing Dissection was it felt like everyone should know. Soon everyone did know but for awhile I felt like a very "selected" is the best word I can describe it as.
The material on The Somberlain was written as far back as 1989 to 1992. The already mentioned Jon and Ole were joined in Dissection by the longtime bassist Peter Palmdahl (1989-97) and the amazing rythm guitarist John Zwetsloot (1991-94).
Everyone should know the Dissection history, that they had originated from the small Swedish town Strömstad (approx 6 300 people) near the Norwegian border.
Before The Somberlain the band had released the demo also as a 7" Into Infinite Obscurity (1991) on the French label Corpse Grinder Records. Also the demos The Grief Prophecy (1991); The Somberlain 4-song demo from 1992 and also the Promo '93 with Where Dead Angels Lie and my favorite cover song of all time Dissection's version of Elisabeth Bathory originally written by Tormentor.
In March of 1993 between the 1st to the 6th of that month they recorded their debut album in the Hellspawn/Unisound Studio with Dan Swanö. More about the production further down. The studio had already made a mark in the Swedish Death and Black Metal scene with bands I don't should have too mention.
The opening song Black Horizons was the newest track on the album the music was written by Nödtveidt & Zwetsloot in Oct. 92 and the lyrics was written by Nödtveidt a month before that. With its 8 min 10 sec Black Horizons is the longest song on the entire album. It starts of with a backward played phrase. Isn't until 2 min into the song that the vocals starts. The song itself sounds probably the most Black Metal like on the album, it has an acoustic guitar playing in parts of the song. Also that classic King Diamond/Heavy Metal scream done by producer Dan Swanö. A perfect opener and one of the best songs on this masterpiece.
The title track The Somberlain was my favorite song back when I first started listening to Dissection. With that amazing opening guitar playing sure that Nödtveidt was a great songwriter but his guitar skills aren't talked about as often. In my book he's the 2nd best guitar player just behind Euronymous. Anyway The Somberlain is the second longest song on the album 7 min, it was written by Nödtveidt alone the music in June 92 and the lyrics December 91. If Dissection is to be associated with one song it's likely many will think of The Somberlain it's there anthem song one could say. Actually this song doesn't appear on the 4-song The Somberlain demo from 1992.
The only song that Nödtveidt co-wrote music with bassist Peter Palmdahl was on the song A Land Forlorn. The music was written in June 92 the lyrics dates back to December 90. The band often played it live in the 90's and on The Rebirth of Dissection tour in 2004 but was dropped after that.
On some gigs in the 90's Heaven's Damnation was used as the opening song and with its fast paced start it suits for that. Even if I personally preferred the At the Fathomless Depths/Night's Blood opening. Anyway the entire Heaven's Damnation song was written in April 92 the music is another Nödtveidt & Zwetsloot co-written one. with a great acoustic guitar which adds much to the mood of the song.
Another one they used to open gigs with was Frozen both in the 90's and also in 2005. The song was entirely written by Nödtveidt himself in December 91. It also appears first on The Somberlain demo from 1992. Definitely a fan favorite also, one of mine as well the verse when Jon sings:
"Tears in my eyes turns into fire
as where I belong
The cold within, it chills my skin,
my heart and soul
In ecstasy I shred myself
to release what's held within
In solitude I'm having my pride
I, Transylvanian son"
is just pure magic. It gets me every time I hear it and sends chills down my spine because it's so fucking brilliant.
The second instrumental song Into Infinite Obscurity is much better then the first one. This one dates back to 1991 and is on the Into Infinite Obscurity 7" that I wrote about earlier.
In the Cold Winds Of Nowhere was another music collaboration by Nödtveidt & Zwetsloot written in Oct. 91. It also appeared on The Somberlain demo from 1992. This album doesn't have any flaws I would say but in my opinion it's the 2nd weakest song on the record. But don't get me wrong! The song is something few bands only could've imagined to write in their entire career.
Only music written by both drummer Ole Öhman and Nödtveidt is on The Grief Prophecy/Shadows Over A Lost Kingdom. The song Shadows Over A Lost Kingdom dates all the way back to November 1989 the same year that Dissection started. It also appeared on Into Infinite Obscurity 7" that version is of course completely different both are great but I do believe that I prefer the 7" version a bit more. At least today on the 3rd December of 2018 but it could change. I'm very glad they included it on the compilation The Past Is Alive (The Early Mischief) (1997) that Necropolis Records put out.
Like I wrote The Somberlain is a flawless album and I would not change anything. But the weakest song of the non-instrumental ones is in my opinion Mistress of the Bleeding Sorrow. It's of course still great also I think that the version from The Somberlain demo from 1992 sounds a little better. It's more raw and harsh of course then this version, yet again very glad it's on The Past Is Alive.
The instrumental by Zwetsloot Feathers Fell ends of this masterpiece and it's the best of the 3 instrumental songs he composed. I often used this one as an ending song on many my mix cassette tapes back in the day. If it had 41 seconds left on a side it was a great way to fit another song onto them. Actually yet again I do prefer demo version with vocals and drums it's 51 seconds and was also used to end cassette tapes with. But both versions are genius so you can't go wrong with either of them.
And that's all the songs on The Somberlain like most debut records it's a lot of "old" demo songs re-recorded. The Past Is Alive does include many but not all of them, but there's been reissued versions of the album and deluxe ones that fixes that if one wants all those songs. But this post is about the 1993 version of The Somberlain the one I grew up listening to.
The production by Dan Swanö was truly amazing. The Somberlain set a new standard for MANY other bands in the scene. Also got to mention the classic amazing cover artwork done by the legendary Kristian "Necrolord" Wåhlin.
Got to do a comparison with the follow-up album Storm Of The Light's Bane that was released almost two years later on Nuclear Blast. I often say it's my favorite Dissection album and my 2nd favorite album of all time. Only beaten by De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas by Mayhem.
Well how much better is really Storm Of The Light's Bane? Extremely little in my opinion when I listen to The Somberlain all memories comes back and I almost change my mind which is the better one.
Many bands even old ones adopted the Dissection style of melodic Death Metal and a ton of newer ones like Naglfar, Vinterland, Gates Of Ishtar etc. It almost got ridiculous with how many Swedish melodic Death Metal with hints of Black Metal popped up.
The style however isn't what I really enjoy except for the records by Dissection, Unanimated and Dawn there's very few melodic Death Metal bands that I like. When done properly it's amazing but take a band like Vinterland their only record is nowadays are praised as something genius. Back then me and my friends used to hate and laugh at all "Dissection clone" bands. I still do that!
When Jon and Vlad was arrested in December of 1997 for murder I was devastated for my own selfish reasons because it meant no more Dissection. At least it felt like that Jon would be doing 16 years in prison or something like that. Being 17 years old at the time and being a huge fan I was truly gutted.
We saw the Live Legacy release in 2003 recorded at Wacken Open Air of 1997 after the murder of Josef. The recording had already circled in the scene and it was released as a bootleg called Frozen In Wacken (1999).
What about Reinkaos (2006)? No thanks... I think it was great that Jon did the Rebirth of Dissection got a new lineup for the band together and did tours. However the songs on Reinkaos sucks... The sound, production, songwriting, arrangements are all terrible.
Sure I think that Maha Kali is a great song even if it sounded quite dated like something from 1996-97 by another band. Other then that its just boring sounding songs on that album. I've tried MANY times and it never gets any better. Actually don't even own a copy of it for myself anymore.
The Somberlain will always be remembered for years to come even at its 50th anniversary it will be regarded as one of the best albums of its time.
Anyway thanks if you read the whole text for a life changing record in this 38 year old man life.
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