Dissection - Reinkaos

BrandonS · October 3rd, 2006, 02:40 PM

Dissection - Reinkaos
Black Horizon Music - April 30th, 2006
By Brandon Strader

Don't be sad for Dissection. Sure, frontman Jon Nodtveidt is dead due to the cowardly act of suicide, and their latest album, Reinkaos, has been getting low ratings in reviews all over the place, but you've still got your good memories of the band, don't you? And Reinkaos really isn't as bad as people have been saying. "Nexion 218", an awesome and spooky acoustic intro, starts up the album. At the end of the intro, the vocalist screams something like 'Saucers, saucers! A buttload of saucers!' in an incoherent, but great, black metal voice.

Perhaps the reason everyone has been pissed is because Reinkaos is not actually black metal. It houses a bunch of elements of black metal, sure, from the vocals to some of the gloomy arrangements. It actually seems more like blackened melo-death perhaps. "Beyond The Horizon" has a lot of attitude, yet in a more focused way and with a cleaner sound than black metal. Add some blastbeats and sharper guitar tones and it could have passed as black metal, probably. It does feel a bit awkward listening to a dead guy (which is why my Death albums have been collecting dust for a good while) but Jon's vocals sound so perfect and cruel. Unfortunately, the fact remains that there are already a ton of bands making this sound, just look at Hypocrisy... Virus was pretty brilliant, and although Reinkaos is great as well, it does seem a bit too familiar to such other projects. Then again, the production on Reinkaos is a lot better than Hypocrisy's Virus. All of the songs have fantastic melodies, a lot of them at that. The twin guitar harmonies paired with the rhythm guitar work well to forge the highly melodic and addictive sound. No idea why Reinkaos got such low ratings and disdain from the metal community...

Reinkaos is really great, and the fact that the band is broke up and the frontman is dead only slightly tarnishes what pleasure you could experience from listening to this album. People will probably pass on this because of the whole cowardly suicide situation being totally un-metal, but in completely seriousness, it's a really great, catchy album. Rest in peices, Dissection...

8/10

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Official Dissection Website
Official Black Horizon Music Website

Metal head87 · October 3rd, 2006, 03:33 PM

What does Chuck dying of cancer have to do with not listening to Death's (and Control Denied's) beyond brilliant music?

BloodSword · October 3rd, 2006, 04:26 PM

good review oinkness. just not quite as good as an 8/10. more like a 6.5/10. This is really an average metal album. However, the vocals and guitar work is pretty good.

BrandonS · October 3rd, 2006, 04:33 PM

Listening to dead vocalists, or seeing dead people on TV, freaks me out.

Metal head87 · October 3rd, 2006, 04:47 PM

I would give this album a 5.5 or a 6. It was a decent album and nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be.
One thing I have to hand to Jon, as silly and cheesy as the theme of the music is (although he believed in that stuff), the music actually has a lot of passion and feel.

Mathiäs · October 3rd, 2006, 10:26 PM

I liked it. Possibly 7.5 in my opinion, compared to some of their other stuff.

Alteredmindeath · October 3rd, 2006, 10:54 PM

get the Dissection dvd and witness the true power of Jon Nodtveidt, he was a flawless performer, and excellent guitarist/vocalist.

one with misery · October 6th, 2006, 07:40 PM

This album is one of the best albums released in 2006.I prefer Black Metal effects on Swedish Death Metal to melodic effects on black metal.So i like this album.This album deserves 8\10.But i can understand black metal fans that curses this album.Maybe they think that jon betrayed them and choose a more commercial pathway.Jon is dead and now dissection broke.We must appreciate what we have.

Shadow298 · October 9th, 2006, 04:12 AM

Personally: I think Reinkaos is a brilliant album!

And because it's not a certain style of Black Metal makes it even better.
For me it harks back to the early days of Black Thrash (Venom, Celtic Frost, Armoured Angel, etc) but adds so many new elements to it as well.

It has groove and rhythm as well as a strange form of passion and intelligence behind it's lyrics.

It's also a good way to end a music career but hard a great mark to end your life.

Oh, well.

Still an amazing album.

Rozenrot · October 13th, 2006, 12:08 PM

I don't listen to reviews.. this album is good!
Thats all that needs to be said.