Available again on double LP, white vinyl, with the same music as the expanded 2011 CD reissue.

Norwegian black metallers were experimenting with the use of electronic music, techno, and industrial elements as far back as Mysticum's In the Streams of Inferno, and bands like Solefald and Arcturus took the fusion of BM and electronics even further out in the late 90s. But when Dodheimsgard released their third album 666 International in 1999, we hadn't heard anything quite this strange and futuristic before. Upon it's release, 666 International was immediately divisive among black metal fans, and was derided by many for lacking the more traditional black metal elements of their previous releases. In hindsight though, this is a pioneering album of extreme electronic black metal that still sounds ahead of its time, with members of Aura Noir, Ved Buens Ende, and Fleurety in the ranks. It originally came out on Moonfog Productions and has been out of print for years, but has now been reissued with bonus tracks on Peaceville. I can't recommend this classic album of mindfuck technoid black metal weirdness enough. Everything about this flies in the face of black metal dogma. From the techno-album style cover art and the full color photo on the back of these (then) young Nordic weirdos made up in dayglo face paint and adorned in Vedic jewelry, to the schizophrenic song arrangements, the weird crooning vocals and shape shifting electronica-meets-mechanized-black-metal, it's total insanity.

Beginning with strains of dark classical piano and chaotic blasting black metal, opener "Shiva Interfere" soon settles in with it's brooding industrial throb, equal parts UK post-punk and Skinny Puppy creep, shifting across it's nine minute length as dissonant black metal riffs dart out of the thumping rhythming grooves and dark ether, skipping across weird counter-intuitive rhythms and strange music box melodies, a funhouse delirium of 80s goth sensibilities and Wax Trax beats infused with the swarming buzz of classic Norwegian black metal. As strange as that opening song is, I'm betting that it was the chunky techno trance of "Ion Storm" that weaves in and out of a holocaust of robotic hyperspeed blackened chaos that really baffled BM fans back when this first came out, as the song races through breakneck changes from frenzied quasi-gabber beats to loping frosty black metal. Next is the eerie baroque piano music of "Carpet Bombing" and the drill n' bass laced dread of "Regno Potiri", followed by "FInal Conquest"'s pounding percussive groove and tribal black metal hysteria. There's another short piano interlude titled "Magic", and the techno hell of "Completion", which seems to be the final track as the disc moves through a series of 50 short silent tracks. The original "hidden" track "Completion Part 2" appears at the end, a reprise of the previous track that is even heavier and more pummeling. That's the original album proper, but Peaceville's reissue also features two additional bonus tracks: the first is the neck-wrecking EBM of "Hemorrhage-Era One" that had previously been included on the Moonfog 2000 compilation; the second is an unreleased track called "Proton Navigator", a lengthy instrumental that blends together jazzy drumming, horns, strange chanting, bluesy guitar solos, pounding slow breakbeats, and lots of nightmarish ambience that gradually shifts into a kind of dark Eastern European folk-inflected trip hop towards the end.

The evolution in sound that Dodheimsgard underwent for 666 International has people pegging them incorrectly as a techno/black metal hybrid, but there's much more to this music than just pounding programmed beats and electronic textures. The songs are arranged so strangely, and the vocals so crazed sounding that it feels like this was beamed straight out of a mental ward from the year 2018. It really is a classic in the realm of avant-garde black metal, and absolutely essential for fans of bands like Manes, Thorns, and Aborym.