ABRAHADABRA

Sun Tzu said:

"Those skilled in war bring the enemy to the field of battle and are notbrought there by him."


In June 2010, DIMMU BORGIR proudly announced that over 101 musicians contributed their talents to the making of the new album, including Norwegian composer and Berklee College of Music summa cum laude alumnus Gaute Storaas, the 51 members of KORK (the Norwegian Radio Orchestra) and the 38-member Schola Cantorum Choir.

Eleven months in the making, the band broke their three-word title tradition for the second time since 1996 to name their ninth studio album ABRAHADABRA, which roughly translates into "I will create as I speak." The word first entered the human lexicon in 1904 via Chapter III of Liber AL vel Legis (commonly referred to as The Book of the Law) written by English occultist and mystic Aleister Crowley during his time in Cairo, Egypt.

Set in the post-apocalyptic landscapes of German artist / painter / graphic designer Joachim Luetke, the album cover's face with tentacles harkens back to H.P. Lovecraft's nameless elder gods and "personifies dominion of powers far beyond mankind," according to the artist. "These nameless gods witnessed the birth of our universe and they'll watch it implode. To them, the age of mankind is but a blink of an eye."

A return to the famed raw ferocity of 1997's Enthrone Darkness Triumphant, ABRAHADABRA is, according to North America's Decibel Magazine, "Norway's answer to The Omen." Metallian Magazine from France predicted: "It will become a milestone of the genre. It is impossible not to be amazed." Inferno Magazine decrees: "Majestic, evil, and pompous, ABRAHADABRA is everything that makes DIMMU BORGIR the elite of the pack."

An inundation of power, a showcase of incessant skill, and above all, an intelligent manifesto of a highly intact creative force, ABRAHADABRA demonstrates every reason why Norway's DIMMU BORGIR is - and unquestionably remains - the most prominent symphonic black metal act in the world.