To celebrate 30 years in the blackened biz, Dimmu Borgir take us on a ride for pleasure, treating us to a collection of 8 cover versions that they have unleashed over the years. As you might expect, their clinical execution is ever-present and they literally hammer their way through some Venom, Bathory and Celtic Frost essentials – more on the Frosties one in a moment. They stay pretty faithful to the originals, rather than dropping in blast passages or otherwise chopping them around – you might say this shows reverence to the old masters.

Things get interesting when they move away from the roots of their traditional genre. They crank out some killer versions of Twisted Sister, Deep Purple and Accept songs. Surprisingly, they don’t detour that far from the originals, but the added DB flavour really makes these songs shine. Rounding the collection off is a track originally by industrial band G.G.F.H. – quite often the borders between black metal and industrial get blurred, and this is no exception. I did refer to Celtic Frost earlier – this album features two versions of  Nocturnal Fear and I don’t want to spoil any surprises, but the second version (Celtically Processed) is definitely worth a listen. This reminds me of when Cradle Of Filth released some cover songs that were outside their normal four walls – really worth a listen. Tom Chapman