Dimmu Borgir And Behemoth No Longer Underground

Black metal and death metal are two sub-genres whose extreme look and sound have pretty much restricted their associated bands to underground cult followings.

So Wednesday night's show presented a paradox as Dimmu Borgir and Behemoth, the world's most mainstream black and death metal bands respectively, shared the stage for the second Invaluable Darkness tour. While some metal elitists have been crying foul at this "sellouts" tour, it has remained one of the most anticipated of the year amongst the general banger populace.

Behemoth have benefited from relentless touring, including a spot on last year's free Ozzfest followed by a headlining North American trek. But don't let their popularity fool you. This night Behemoth churned out some brutal and blasphemous death metal, kicking their set off with "Slaves Shall Serve" from 2004's phenomenal release Demigod, all the while dressed in Ancient Roman armor and, of course, corpse paint.

The set mainly focused on newer material from their most recent The Apostasy album, including "Slaying The Prophets Ov Isa," which featured an inhuman drumming performance by Inferno and "Christgrinding Avenue," which was inspired by frontman Nergal's trip to Jerusalem, which he called the "source ov a weak and faulty culture, the true heart ov darkness."

At this point in the band's history, Behemoth's catalogue has become so large it's tough to fit in all the favourites, so while we still got "Conquer All" and "Antichristian Phenomenon," "Sculpting The Throne Ov Seth" and "Christians To The Lions" were sorely missed.

Considering they were playing their first gig after coming off a brief break in touring, Behemoth played a solid 40 minute set. However, it paled in comparison to last year's headlining set which allowed time for more songs and more interaction between Nergal and the audience — a skill that he has perfected so well that it truly makes Behemoth one of metal's best overall live acts. If you can stomach the brutal death metal for a while and aren't blinded by your religious beliefs, Behemoth is a band all heavy music lovers should see.

Dimmu Borgir certainly don't play the brand of "trve Norwegian black metal" that gained that scene more notoriety in the early '90s for the string of violence and church burnings than the actual music. For that reason, and because they sell a lot of records, Dimmu have taken a lot of heat from the black metal community. But anyone who can curb the elitist attitude and ignore the gangsta bandana sported by guitarist Silenoz, will realize that whether they're "trve" or not, they're still fucking awesome. Unlike Nergal, Dimmu frontman Shagrath doesn't really command an audience with his stage banter, which means less talk and more rock.

Much like Behemoth, Dimmu Borgir played a lot of material off last year's In Sorte Diaboli, including "The Serpentine Offering," "The Sinister Awakening" and "The Fundamental Alienation." They played live staples "Spellbound" and "Mourning Palace" off their seminal 1997 release Enthrone Darkness Triumphant, but unfortunately they didn't delve further back into their catalogue, which has a lot more traditional black metal material than the newer stuff. They probably don't play those songs because the majority of the crowd doesn't recognize them and those songs are sung in Norwegian. I still think it would be nice if they threw "Dodsferd" or "Alt Lys Er Svunnet Hen" into the set. But in the grand scheme, it's probably best to go with newer epics like "Progenies Of The Great Apocalypse," to which you can both rock out and sing along.

With the pretty large turnout at The Sound Academy, it may not have been the most underground metal show in recent memory, but it beat sitting at home in your parents basement.