The People v. Dissection: Reinkaos

If it pleases the Court, your honor, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we are here today to discuss the merits of Dissection's swansong.  Reinkaos is often mentioned among in the same breath as St. Anger, Risk, and The Unspoken King, among many other huge flops by heretofore famous bands.  The problem is one of reputation and prior albums.  Dissection's early work is held up as classics by a large number of metalheads.  Their brand of freezing cold, melodic black metal had never really been heard before.  And Dissection did it well.  Their first two albums have stood the test of time and truly are classics.

So what happened with Reinkaos?  To begin with, there was an eleven year gap between Storm of the Light's Bane and Reinkaos.  In that time, Dissection ceased to be a truly original band.  Many other groups took what Dissection was doing and crafted their own sound.  Lord Belial, Naglfar, and many other melodic black metal bands arose during the time Dissection was on hiatus.

Secondly, the sound on this release was significantly different.  Instead of the cold and dark atmospheric black metal Dissection previously crafted, this was a melodic death metal album.  Most of the black metal elements, apart from the vocal style had been stripped away.  Furthermore, the sound was more streamlined on this release.  The songs were much more straightforward and had a more typical structure and progression.  The songs were catchy, insanely so.  And that just is not well-received by a band that had previously been beloved as a melodic black metal pioneer.

Reinkaos is a good album though.  And that is why we are here ladies and gentlemen.  To discuss the merits of this much-maligned album.  For one, as mentioned before, it is incredibly catchy.  I know I find myself singing "Starless Aeon", "Dark Mother Divine", and "Maha Kali" over and over again every time I hear this album.  They are, in a word, infectious.  And the entire album is like that.

Furthermore, you simply cannot judge this album against the band's prior albums.  As stated, there was a long gap between albums.  Many bands change their sound drastically over a long period of time, it just so happened that Dissection's change seemed like night and day because there was a dearth of releases between them instead of a gradual progression like other groups.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I urge you to reconsider Dissection's final album.  It is not the terrible release that many make it out to be.  If it was created by any other band, it would be considered a classic.  Thank you.