DIMMU BORGIR: 'Forces Of The Northern Night' Unboxing Video

"Forces Of The Northern Night", the highly anticipated double DVD from Norwegian symphonic black metallers DIMMU BORGIR, will be released on April 14 via Nuclear Blast. The set will contain two of the band's live performances: their legendary show in Oslo, presenting DIMMU BORGIR on stage with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and a bombastic choir, as well as their entire performance at Wacken Open Air festival in 2012 in Wacken, Germany with almost a hundred musicians on stage. Both concerts present a spectacular sound scenario of raging black metal in front of an epic orchestral landscape plus the band's unique visuals.

An unboxing video for "Forces Of The Northern Night" can be seen below.

DIMMU BORGIR's remarkable and atramentous stage show has long seemed like a natural evolution for fans, but much time, arrangements and commitment were necessary to put this gigantic production into reality and fill the stage with 90 minutes of mindblowing aural delight per night. The shows guide the fans through classics from the band's discography — from the majestic finisher "Mourning Palace" — which can be seen below (footage from the Wacken show) — to the stomping manifesto "Puritania" and the haunting "Gateways".

"For us, this is the pinnacle of our career so far," says DIMMU BORGIR frontman Stian Thoresen (a.k.a. Shagrath). "As a band, we've always used a lot of symphonic elements in our music. But we haven't been able to use a real orchestra. We've had to use samples, synthesizers and so on, so this was a huge, awesome experience for us."

In addition to the two concerts, "Forces Of The Northern Night" will include a bonus documentary feature.

DIMMU BORGIR's May 28, 2011 concert at the Oslo Spektrum in Norway, which is included on "Forces Of The Northern Night", featured a special setlist with 53 members of KORK (the Norwegian Radio Orchestra) and 30 members of the Schola Cantorum choir, who were musical guests on the band's ninth studio album, 2010's "Abrahadabra". The show was professionally filmed and was broadcast as part of a one-hour documentary in June 2011 on NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation),the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company and the largest media organization in Norway.

In an interview with Scuzz TV, DIMMU BORGIR guitarist Sven Atle Kopperud (a.k.a. Silenoz) stated about the experience of performing with an orchestra: "It was, of course, really special, especially since it was in Oslo, and a lot of people traveled in for the show from all over the world. And everything went great on stage for once. When you have a hundred people on stage, the percentage of something going wrong is definitely there, but it was really, really good."

He added: "You think your band is professional, then you play with an orchestra, and then you know, 'Oh, we're not so professional after all.'"

DIMMU BORGIR last year extended its partnership with Nuclear Blast.

The band's tenth album is tentatively due before the end of 2017.

DIMMU BORGIR's most recent touring lineup included Geir Bratland (APOPTYGMA BERZERK, THE KOVENANT) on keyboards and Terje Andersen (a.k.a. Cyrus; SUSPERIA) on bass.