Dimmu Borgir — Wacken Open Air, 2012

On 3 August 2012, Dimmu Borgir delivered one of its most ambitious shows at the Wacken Open Air festival in Germany. The Norwegian symphonic black metal band was joined by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and a choir, carrying the orchestral scale of its albums onto the stage. This pro-shot, live full concert later formed the basis of the Forces of the Northern Night album and DVD. Around the core of Shagrath (vocals), Silenoz and Galder (guitars), the group works through career milestones: “Progenies of the Great Apocalypse,” “The Serpentine Offering,” “Puritania” and “Mourning Palace” take on a cinematic weight, broken up by purely orchestral interludes. The recording captures Dimmu Borgir’s distinct place in extreme metal — a band that, since the 1990s, has sought to merge black metal aggression with symphonic composition. The setting of Wacken, the world’s largest metal gathering, adds to the occasion’s significance. For anyone interested in the meeting of metal and orchestra, this 2012 live performance is a reference document, showing the logistical and musical ambition needed to stage such a collaboration before tens of thousands.