Dimmu Borgir + Enslaved + Blood Red Throne + Dawn of Ashes

Sidestep the debate over whether Norway's Dimmu Borgir qualifies as real black-metal. It's better by far to simply acknowledge that this band—now vocalist Shagrath, guitarists Silenoz and Galder, and their hired help—can be brutal, grotesque, epic and ridiculous in equal measure, often all at once. Sweeping into town in support of the wildly ambitious Abrahabadra, the Borgir boys stack the deck by bringing along Enslaved, whose majestic new CD, Axioma Ethica Odini, is one of the year's few indisputable metal gems.