Dissident
Dagor Dagorath
•
January 12, 2015

It is testament to Metal's ability to spread all over the world that even its most extreme and controversial sub-genres, such as Black Metal, have spread from small beginnings to becoming a truly global institution. Although Metal has often thrived on controversy, and Black Metal as a genre, was originally thrust into the light more as a consequence of the actions of its adherents, rather than their music its spread as a genre is not to be ignored. From the icy cold of Norway, all the through to... well, to DAGOR DAGORATH.
DAGOR DAGORATH is Symphonic Black Metal band from Israel, a country that has already given the world brilliant artists such as ORPHANED LAND and BETZEFER, "Dissident" is their second full length outing. To be honest, while it's a pretty solid effort it's not exactly mind-blowing.
Musically speaking, the album is relatively run of the mill Black Metal, with some symphonic decoration to fill it out a bit. The vocals are a combination of standard rasps with some lower death growls thrown in as well, performed admirably enough by Vorog. But as has been mentioned, it is just a bit too standard to really grip the listener the whole way through.
The bands lyrical themes revolve heavily around political and human rights issues, the most obvious examples are "Dear Leader", where the music takes on a very militaristic feel and a very sarcastic and cynical portrayal of an oppressed population forced into claiming how wonderful everything is under the rule of their great leader. "You can ask anyone, they will answer/there is no happier people than us", it's certainly an interesting piece and one of the better songs on the album. Secondly, there is the first full track on the album, "Panopticon". The song has a very ordered feel, mirroring the nature of a real life Panopticon - a prison where one guard could see into all cells without having to move, so that prisoners had to assume that they were always being watched, and behave accordingly. Or as its inventor, Jeremy Bentham described it, "a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind". Almost a form of mental torture. More importantly however, making the songs sound like a musical reflection of their subject matter is clearly one of the bands strengths and demonstrates a proper dedication to the writing process. Especially as Black Metal can all too easily, sound all too similar.
The real issue is that these two tracks, which are two of the best, occur at the start of the album, the second half is largely mediocre. Tracks like "Sign of Kain" are by no means bad, they are just incapable of adding anything really interesting to the album, as a whole. I couldn't make up my mind to give this a six or seven, so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and give a seven purely on the basis that the song writing is good and the band have clearly thought about how to present their music. In a sentence: it's good, but it's by no means great.<
7 / 10
Good

"Dissident" Track-listing:
1. Intro
2. Panopticon
3. Possessed
4. Dear Leader
5. Desired Hellespont
6. Dissident
7. Fire And Forget
8. Sign Of Kain
9. Dazzled By Light And Darkness
10. Zion
Dagor Dagorath Lineup:
Vorog - Guitar, Vocals
Getman Azach - Keyboards, Vocals
Mizgir - Bass
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