It is true that I wasn’t there at the very beginning of when black metal genre started. Later on, when I was able to embrace this music style I went back, acquired and listened to many classics of the genre. Some of them were lost on me (no names), but others left a lasting impression. Dissection’s Storm of the Light’s Bane was unforgettable. Its pace was furious, twin guitar harmonies breathing through the icy cold atmosphere leaving razor marks on the skin already cold-burned as if with liquid nitrogen. Then guitarist/vocalist and the band’s soul Jon Nodtveidt committed a heinous crime. I find it incomprehensible, and as another human being lost his life, inexcusable. An immigrant gay man was shot. Jon was imprisoned and Dissection effectively ceased to exist. If it was in America, Jon may have been committed to life, but Swedish laws are apparently more lenient. 11 years spent in jail is a long time to reflect on things past. Whatever other thoughts were revolving in Jon’s head, one was certain – the music of Dissection was going to continue, and it was going to reflect his newly shaped and strengthened Satanic convictions.

I am sure there are younger people out there dabbling in black metal and also trying to check on the legendary names, just like I was ten years ago. Dissection has to figure in that equation. I was going to write this review through the eyes of the person experiencing Dissection for the first time, and the one longing for the days gone by.

An impressionable youth:

I have to say that Reinkaos definitely does not sound like the few black metal albums I was able to sample recently. Hey, this is quite well-structured, opposite of chaotic and definitely not scary! I could actually enjoy it. The tempo is definitely not breakneck, the riffs, albeit repetitive, make a strong rhythmic foundation for the songs. Just about every song on Reinkaos has its main chord sequence everything else revolves around, even Chaosophia and title track instrumentals. I can recognize the ironic vitriol of Beyond the Horizon, the apocalyptic doom of Starless Aeon and dark shrouding nature of Dark Mother Divine. The most lasting impression is left by the massive melodic hooks in the choruses of Beyond the Horizon, Dark Mother Divine and the closer Maha Kali. The latter, with its female vocal lines, closes the 11-song opus where the lyrics and the message are focused on the convictions I do not share, but allow others to harbor.

A hardcore black metal veteran:

I can’t believe I am listening to Dissection. The only thing that links this band with the one which produced Somberlain and Storm of the Light’s Bane is the logo. I can see how 11 years in a not-so-pleasant institution may change someone’s outlook, but why does it have to be a total abandonment of the roots? Martial power chords are OK for the intro Nexion 218, but I thought that is where they will end. Instead, this is how the WHOLE album is constructed – mediocre slightly melodic groovy standard and predictable chug. This is not even Gothenburg melodeath, this is more what In Flames call melodeath today, only slower in tempo. Yes, some of it is catchy, but the best moments do not come until melodic hooks in the choruses of Beyond the Horizon, Dark Mother Divine and the closer Maha Kali, which I have heard before on the unimpressive EP. Some feeble attempts to stir up the tempo come on Xeper-I-Set and Internal Fire, but overall this chugging style is not taking the songs anywhere. The pace is anemic, the passion is lost, the soloing is timid, the drumming is so ho-hum and no-stress, the best melody comes on way-too-long instrumental title track and, by the way, it resembles the melody off Where Dead Angels Lie which has to be Jon Nodtveidt’s favorite track. Props to Jon for carrying through with his Satanic beliefs, but, if that is how Anti-Cosmic Metal of Death sounds, I am no fan.

Enough with the objective crap. What do I personally think of Reinkaos? My stirring memories of Dissection of old, ruined by Jon’s despicable act, are not to be resurrected by Reinkaos. He may have well “invested the soul in this album, gone through fire and brimstone to make everything work”, but Reinkaos is largely forgettable. Could it be that a forceful desire to stick to a mystic theme deprived the music of the fervor and enthusiasm displayed in 1996? Reinkaos comes off as a collection of mystic chants with catchy moments, which are not enough to hold the album together. This is definitely not black metal, but neither is it a good melodic death album.