When Dodheimsgard, or DHG for short, was first formed in 1994, they were formed as a black metal band. They released two purely black metal albums, Krontet Kil Konge and Monumental Possession. After Monumental Possession, the band decided to take a turn on their music. They decided to make industrial and experimental metal while still keeping their black metal side in tact. Unlike other bands like The Kovenant, Dodheimsgard actually make this style sound pretty good. Supervillain Outcast is the bands most recent release. They had several lineup changes for this album. Founder and former vocalist Vicotnik was now handling only guitar duties, Kvohst was the new vocalist, Thrawn was on guitars, Clandestine was on the bass, Carl-Michael Eide aka Czral was the drummer, and Mort was handling all the synths.
The best way to describe this album is very fast. Even though the band toned it down on their black metal side, they still know how to play their instruments at a very fast and black metal like pace. Czral is a very well known drummer in the black metal scene and he doesn't dissappoint on this album. The main drumming style of the album is blast beats and when it comes to blast beats Czral is one of the best. The guitar playing by Thrawn and Vicotnik is also really fast and also pretty technical. They have speed, technicality, and also the normal tremolo picking that is so common in the black metal genre. Bass is pretty non-existent on this album. Also, this album is full of industrial samples. During every song, you always have some weird industrial parts being thrown in your face along with the fastness of the instruments playing. Now industrial isn't a genre that I'm very fond of, but Mort makes all of it sound good. Its nothing cheesy like what's heard from The Kovenant on their disaster S.E.T.I. DHG is probably the best band in the black metal scene to mix industrial and black metal at one time other than V:28.
Vocals on this album are decent. Kvohst's is a completely different vocalist than Vicotnik. His main style of vocals aren't really a black metal scream. Its more like a shout with a slight raspy edge to it. Its kind of hard to explain. When he does do the regular black metal screams though its definitely nice to hear. He has a pretty unique scream and doesn't really sound like anyone else in the genre. Sometimes he even does the low death metal growl, but that doesn't really happen too often. Unfortunately, he doesn't do his black metal screams enough for a great vocal performance on this album.
Overall, Supervillain Outcast is a good album. Its nothing that anybody is going to be talking about for years to come as one of the best black metal albums ever, but its pretty enjoyable. If you like industrial mixed in with your black metal and you like it done right, this is probably the album to get. Either this or an album by V:28 will keep you satisfied. The problems with this album is that it gets really boring and repetitive. With 15 songs and clocking in at almost an hour, this album can be kind of hard to listen to more than a couple of times. Other than that, you can probably get a couple of good listens out of this album.
