It is no doubt black metal is a growing scene and either you have to review bands that just focus on copying other bands or you review something new, fresh and brilliant. The new Dark Funeral comes as no surprise : black and satanic as hell, fast, melodic (yes !) and furious. Having already proven their talent with previous satanic works, Dark Funeral is back with Diabolic Interium, which should have been a masterpiece, but ...

This Diabolic Interium reminds too much Dimmu Borgir. I can't really explain it, but you almost know in advance what will happen. Don't misunderstand me here : this is good stuff, but I am wondering if we are not turning in circle (the same apply to the last Dimmu Borgir ... which has also this taste). Actually between Dark Funeral and Hollenthon, my heart is slowly going to Hollenthon. But that's another story.

Now let's talk about this new CD : if you like satanic lyrics, Diabolic Interium is full of satanic stories. Let me give you some title songs and you will immediately get to the point : The Arrival Of Satan's Empire, Hail Murder, An Apprentice Of Satan, Armageddon Finally Comes and the title track of course, Diabolis Interirum. Well, not the kind of stories you read to your kids....

Musically it goes fast, damn fast and the vocals are perfect ... there is so much hate in the vocals that you wonder if the singer will not comes out of the speaker and take you with him .... to "hell with the devil" ;-)). The real change, not that much noticeable actually, comes AGAIN from the wonderful production (Peter Tägtgren). There is no doubt the Abyss Studios will stay in the history of black metal ... forever !!!!

Black metal fans will like it of course. However, two disappointments for me : 1) no surprise at all and very linear 2) this Diabolic Interium is damn short (8 songs for only 36 minutes) and at the end, this one sounds very much like Dimmu Borgir's Spiritual Black Dimension or Emperor IX Equilibium ... at full speed.