Dissection – POLL of the Light's Bane

Personally I understand the suspicion tbh! It's just... this will blow anyone away I think.

Hey I missed this. This is of course a great record - Night's Blood for me, it's a fantastic opener that immediately lays all the cards on the table what you're going to get. I think now after 25 years of loving both, this one's better than The Somberlain, not so much for the riffs/melodies but because of the much faster songs, there's just way more energy here. As with many of these grandiose sounding albums, it's pretty amazing just how young Nödtveidt was when this (and The Somberlain) was written/recorded.

its innumerably many imitators

As a latecomer to the metal scene, I defer to your judgment on this, obviously. I suppose it’s a retrospective impression more than anything: on RYM, for instance, SOTLB falls two spots short of the all-metal top 50, whereas The Somberlain isn’t even in the top 100 despite being #2 on the meloblack chart, followed by... Windir.

Btw I completely agree with you as regards tempo. I’m fond of the debut’s comparative doominess, but it does lag a bit at times.

That Windir record is fantastic tbh.

I think meloblack got a bit of a bad rap around that time (1995-1997) since there were so many of these bands around and this style didn't have the inherent badassery that Sunlight-sound Swedish DM and Norwegian BM sound had, but there was a lot of quality stuff made in that short period even if it all blends together at some point. Dissection mainly stood out for the really good hooks I think.

I actually haven’t heard it yet, but I’m slowly getting there.

xp

Don't listen too much of this stuff or you'll start to hate it as much as everyone else did at the time.

Heh, I feel like I’ve reached my limit already with melodeath and I haven’t even heard that much of it, so I’ll keep that in mind.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.