Will DIMMU BORGIR Be First Black Metal Band To Top Norwegian Album Chart?

April 20, 2007

Four years ago, DIMMU BORGIR's album "Death Cult Armageddon" was beaten to the top spot on the Norwegian album chart by the Norwegian "Idol" winner Kurt Nilsen. Now the Norwegian symphonic black metallers band are looking at what might be their first-ever No. 1 when their new CD, "In Sorte Diaboli", is released April 30, reports the Norwegian music industry magazine Faro Journalen.

Veteran record company executive Espen Solheim Røhne at Indie Distribution, which handles Nuclear Blast Records' releases in Norway, believes DIMMU BORGIR will make it all the way to the top with "In Sorte Diaboli". That will make DIMMU BORGIR the first black metal band ever to top the charts in Norway, and probably anywhere in the world.

"We hope and believe that we can reach No. 1, even without TV advertising in advance," Espen Solheim Røhne told Faro Journalen. "We are convinced that the DIMMU fans will be in the record stores on the first day of release to buy the record."

Indie Distribution is planning a huge marketing campaign to support the album.

"We are running a two-week ad campaign on TV 3 (Norwegian cable network) for 'In Sorte Diaboli' after the album has been out for three weeks," Solheim Røhne revealed. "We're gonna go all out with marketing to make sure the album doesn't fall off the charts after it's been out for a few weeks. We are also doing co-ops with all the major retailers."

Lars Ulimoen, the store manager of Platekompaniet, Norway's biggest retailer, believes that DIMMU BORGIR will be an important release for the record store chain in 2007.

"DIMMU BORGIR traditionally sells very well in our shops. It blew through the roof with 'Death Cult Armageddon', and their back catalogue is a steady seller. Within the black metal genre, they are by far the biggest band. Bands like EMPEROR, IMMORTAL, MAYHEM and SATYRICON are all selling approximately the same numbers, and then you have DIMMU BORGIR miles ahead of them."

Two Norwegian black metal records have reached No. 2 in Norway: "Death Cult Armageddon" (2003) and SATYRICON's 2006 album "Now, Diabolical". "Death Cult Armageddon" has sold 18,000 copies in Norway to date.

(Thanks: Asbjørn Slettemark / Faro Journalen)

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