Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane
1995 saw the beginning of the end for the Norwegian black metal movement, which, after reaching its creative peak in 1993/94 headed into a period of decline as Burzum and Mayhem had their careers disrupted by the death of Euronymous and Varg Vikernes’ attendant legal difficulties, and the temporary silence of DarkThrone, Emperor and Enslaved. Immortal soldiered on with the excellent Battles in the North: but coming on the heels of the all time classic Pure Holocaust, it was something of a letdown, and was certainly not enough to maintain the scene’s forward momentum by itself.
It was into this void that Dissection was trying to step, bringing with them impressive technical skills, an encyclopedic knowledge of several generations of metal history and riffing, and the will, or at least the desire, to reinvigorate the flagging fortunes of black metal by expanding on the genre’s latent melodic potential while reintroducing the technical discipline of death metal. Some of it even works.
Storm of the Light’s Bane is all over the map stylistically – a careful listener will detect influences from Iron Maiden, to Kreator, to Morbid Angel to early Immortal. In some ways, this is a strength, the variation (mostly) keeps the band from falling into any sort of songwriting formula (a problem that plagues many technically astute artists). At the same time, it prevents Dissection from developing a consistent aesthetic or any conceptual unity. The album’s best track “Night’s Blood,” reinvigorates what is basically ripping death metal in the style of early Morbid Angel or first album Deicide with a darkly melodic turn worthy of classic Immortal or Enslaved. Unfortunately, this experiment is a one off, and the rest of the album consists of more straightforward melodic black metal tunes.
The best of these songs (which are very good, but by no means great) – “Unhallowed,” “Retribution – Storm of the Light’s Bane” and “Soulreaper” – make black metal of old school heavy metal by breaking openly harmonized riffs in the vein of Iron Maiden into longer phrases using black metal rhythmic technique. While they lack the inventiveness, classical phrasing and epic dynamic sense of Sacramentum or the expert pacing and clever use of texture found in the better works of late-model Immortal, these tracks are both successful and satisfying, at least on a superficial level. A couple of tracks, most notably the seemingly interminable “Thorns of Crimson Death,” take an unfortunate detour into some of the worst defects of heavy metal and are dragged down by insipid, bouncy rock rhythms and sing-along kiddie metal choruses.
While Dissection display a mastery of a vast array of metal technique, Storm of the Light’s Bane lacks any unifying concept beyond a surface aesthetic of stylized ‘complexity’, as if the band never had any ambition beyond taking a basic black metal template and making it more technically aware. As a result, it has not stood the test of time as well as stylistically similar but more compositionally and conceptually expansive works like Sacramentum’s Far Away From the Sun and Immortal’s At the Heart of Winter have. Many will continue to praise this release out of nostalgia or ignorance, but it is perhaps better seen as a gateway to better music than as an essential pillar of the extreme metal pantheon.
6/10
