The origonal Stormblåst was somewhat enjoyable but always fell short for me. The mixing on the keyboards and vocals was off putting to me. Additionally the drums just are dull, they don't do anything to liven up the music or even provide anything but just the basics that the songs need.
Enter in a rerecording a few years later. The production is fixed, the drummer is now Hellhammer, and the album is just flat out better.
Stormblåst MMV taps into the potential that the band showed with their first two albums and elivates it with clearer production. The riffs are allowed to expand and breathe here, they are allowed to interact with the keys in ways that they could not previously.
Listen to Broderskapets ring. The main riff is slow, yet intricate. While the guitar chords are playing, piano chords are in the background to give it a bit more energy. When the main melody comes in the keys soar with chiors and a blanket of ambience. Then there is Hellhammer.
Whereas the origonal drumming was competent yet boring, Hellhammer is a completely different beast. He manages to provide not only a solid backbone for the songs, he adds in his own character of interesting fills and accents to the beats that do nothing but elivate. They make the songs more interesting and dynamic all while not distracting from the main focus of the songs.
Stormblåst MMV is also the last time I heard Shagrath sound this good. His vocals are sharper - more venomous than his typical delivery for the band. They are still clearly in the Dimmu style but they have that black metal edge to them that has been missing for the past few albums.
Dimmu Borgir has always been an interesting band. As they grew and evolved they went further away from their black metal foundations and ended up as an extreme symphonic band. But for one moment in time, they stripped it all down to provide us with one hell of a good rerecorded album.
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