The Death Of Jon Nödtveidt

Sorry I haven’t made any posts for the last few days, I had a very busy weekend and couldn’t get to a computer.

People have been reading the metal news recently probably know a lot of information about the whole Jon Nödtveidt/Dissection frontman suicide.

When Jon Nödtveidt was released from prison, he soon reformed Dissection with an all new lineup, and quickly put out the EP "Maha Kali", which it seemed many people did not like. "Reinkaos" seemed to suffer the same fate as "Maha Kali". I think the biggest reason why people didn’t like the two new releases was because they were a departure in sound for Dissection, especially since his first releases are considered modern classics. I have “Storm Of The Lights Bane” and “Where Dead Angels Lie”, and I would very much like to have “The Somberlain” as well.

Jon Nödtveidt was convicted of murdering a homosexual in 1998 and went to prison for 6 years. I believe he was considered an accomplice to the murder, although I’m not totally sure. I’ve noticed that there seems to be two definite opinions on that situation, people who feel his sentence wasn’t enough, and yet I was surprised about the amount of people who don’t seem to put up much fuss about what he did.

Different countries have different laws, and many people can interpret the punishment of certain crimes as not fitting the situation. We here at Nile River are under the opinion that Jon Nödtveidt was properly convicted by Swedish law.

Many people consider the early work of Dissection to be melodic black metal, and I would generally agree that it’s a fairly good description of the sound. The cold stark guitars, high raspy vocals that echo, and the occasional blast beat would have many place Dissection in the camp of black metal. The production sounds like a very high quality low-budget job, so Dissection sounds very tight, and none of the instruments are drowned out. The visuals of the band seem a bit different though. Dissection never dressed up in the “corpse paint” get up of many black metal bands, but they did wear much of their satanic beliefs out in full view. Unlike most black metal bands, the band members used their real names instead of pseudonyms.