The most hardcore of black metal fans will always rail against the "impostor" acts that remain more popular. Acts such as Dimmu Borgir for example. We're not hardcore black metal fans so we can point out some of the benefits of the more mainstream scene: the appreciation for classical and orchestral music for one. The aforementioned group will reportedly release its renowned 2011 symphonic performance on DVD during 2015.
Vocalist and guitarist Sven Atle "Silenoz" Kopperud spoke to Blabbermouth.net during an interview at the Bloodstock Open Air festival in the United Kingdom.
"You think your band is professional, then you play with an orchestra," he said of the experience. "And then you know, 'Oh, we're not so professional after all.'"
The "Forces of The Northern Light" (of which the DVD will share the name) was broadcast as a one-hour special on the Norwegian Broadcasting Company (NBK) during 2011, featuring the band performing with KORK, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra. The presence of the corpsepaint-wearing metal musicians onstage with the orchestra must've been a sight to see...and now we'll finally get to see it and hear it better than the sketchy YouTube uploads, thanks to it being remastered by the band.
They won't be the first metal band to perform with an orchestra. Metallica, the most mainstream of any metal act, had commercial and critical success doing the S&M album with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, while extreme metal icons Cradle of Filth recorded 2003's Damnation And A Day with the Budapest Film Orchestra.
