Dimmu Borgir

The long-running career of Norwegian symphonic black metal band Dimmu Borgir launched with a 7-inch that sold out within weeks of its 1993 release. Since then the group has enjoyed international darling status and held a place as a major player on the mainstream metal landscape, a fact that has often obscured its high level of creativity and divided purist metal fans over its overall worth. That creativity has shown itself in eight (so far) punctually biannual records that combine doom-y elegance with the thrum of black metal guitars, unapologetically dramatic classic moves and intense wraith-screech vocals. Dimmu Borgir's defining moment came in 1997, when they signed to Nuclear Blast and released the smash hit album Enthrone Darkness Triumphant, their first to feature lyrics in English. They had also made a controversial decision to do away with their traditionally entangled black metal logo and go with a straightforward, easily readable version. These moves have contributed to the perception of Dimmu Borgir as sellouts, despite the fact that while their songs reach masses of people through radio and MTV airplay, there is little metal in the mainstream that's as heavy, black or imaginative.