As ridiculous as any rational person finds Dimmu Borgir (and hey, we’re Metalheads, so there’s quite an amount of ridiculousness that we can take before self-consciousness sets in) it’s absolutely damn impossible to restrain a shiver down your spine as the first DVD’s Oslo-filmed live show starts, and the band take their place on the stage backed by an impressively epic orchestral motif, before all hell breaks loose with Progenies Of The Great Apocalypse. Fine, a fair few of the actual orchestral bits appear to be on a tape somewhere rather than produced from the able hands of keyboardist Mustis, but who cares when the setting is this bold, this grandiose? And the stage banter may well be in Norwegian but the words ‘Norsk’ ‘Black’ and ‘Metal’ are pretty obvious even to an ignorant Englishman such as I. Follow-up song The Serpentine Offering duly serves to destroy all lingering opposition, and it’s hard not to sit through the rest of the performance even if you’re not convinced.

Filmed more from the audience than from backstage to give that ‘I was there!’ feeling, it’s marvellously impressive. Nothing outrageous happens, no fire-breathing or crowd-surfing, but for what is probably the most respectable of the ‘commercial Black Metal’ crew, Dimmu do a fine job. Having said that, the bald and moustachioed Galder will always look more than a little silly. Is it just me, or does he have more of a hint of Bennett to him, Commando fans? Still, the rest of the band are little short of majestic, however, twisted sons of heaven come down to walk with us mere mortals.

And without a doubt, fans of the band will be in heaven (or should that be hell?) as on the three discs here are contained two complete live shows, the aforementioned Oslo show in November of 2007 as well as Wacken ‘07’s show, plus selected tracks from three other shows, plus a host of bonus features... This is surely the definitive Dimmu collection, songs here ranging back to the early days as well as plenty from last opus In Sorte Diaboli. The Invaluable Darkness contains over five hours of footage, which should be enough to overwhelm anyone, and the special features are of decent quality too: aside from the typically dull Behind The Scenes footage that you’ll never watch more than once (if that), the band’s last six videos (perfect for shocking your Indie friends with) are the highlight, and yes, whilst you can get them from YouTube, if the unedited version of Progenies Of The Great Apocalypse shown here doesn’t stir your Black heart and loins (extra tits and a bloody Vortex being the previously-censored attractions) then you’re a poor fan indeed.

It’s hard to complain about anything in this package, as even the menus are of cinematic quality! My one gripe is the frequent Norwegian dialogue, which would be ok here and there, but when one of the special features is the band being awarded a gold disc, would it not have been worthwhile to provide subtitles so we non-Norwegians out there can understand what’s going on? Still, this is probably the most invested-in Black Metal DVD I’ve ever seen, and as a record of life inside Dimmu it’s flawless. Fans, eat this up.