DARK FUNERAL Is Putting Finishing Touches On Songwriting For 'Killer' New Studio Album: 'I'm So Excited', Says LORD AHRIMAN

In a new interview with Ed Hackimer of This Day In Metal, Mikael Jan Svanberg, better known as Lord Ahriman, the Swedish musician and composer best known as the primary guitarist, songwriter and sole founding member of black metal band DARK FUNERAL, spoke about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the follow-up to the group's latest album, "We Are The Apocalypse", which was released in March 2022. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We're in the end of the writing process. So we almost got it. But when I to talked to Heljarmadr [DARK FUNERAL vocalist Andreas Vingbäck] about it, he was, like, 'Don't fucking jinx it. We're not there yet.' But I guess it's just because I'm so excited. And I know he is too, but he was, like, 'Take it easy.' But, yeah, it feels great. We've been talking over the past couple of days a lot about how the songs developed, and he is on fire as much as I am. So this feels great. Of course it sucks that we're not gonna be able to show this for you until next year, but the good thing is that it's coming, a new studio record, and it's gonna fucking be killer, that's for sure."

Lord Ahriman also talked about his vision for DARK FUNERAL's upcoming live show, explaining: "Well, that's always been part of the black metal movement. There's always a musical, spiritual and visual side. The visual part of the music style, that's always been a great part. And I like to be creative both with music but also the visual stuff. When I write music, I see everything as a movie. When I write a song, I see a movie playing in front of me. So that's why I also wanna bring as much as we can, bring that kind of visual side on stage as well.

"We are from the early '90s era of black metal, and that's who I am," he explained. "But at the same time, you don't just wanna keep on repeating yourself. You still wanna be inspired and find new ways how to do this and present it. And I think we're planning probably the biggest step we've done over the years for the next touring cycle. We have lots of great ideas. We just need to finalize everything. But we came up with some cool ideas how to keep the old school but still kind of bring it into the future but with thought and not just do it without any purpose, because I feel like many bands, they're just doing it because — because of what? For me, it's gotta be a deep thought behind it. Why are we doing this? Because if there is, then the impact is gonna be stronger, and you can work on it in a much more interesting way when you're creative. And I think we have some really cool ideas. It's been done in certain ways, but I have never seen anybody do it the way I hope we manage to pull it together. And when I presented it to our booking agencies, I was, like, 'This is really cool. This is something new, and it's totally on another level.' So, yeah, I like that part of being in DARK FUNERAL too. Not just the music — I like the visual, creative side of that too. But, of course, everything is super expensive. We're still not a super-rich band. So there's a budget that limits us from going all in. But we're working on trying to do as much as we can of all the crazy ideas we have… That's one of the thing that also keeps this interesting for us. As I said, I don't wanna just keep on repeating and do the same thing like I've done for 30 years. It's gotta be interesting and inspiring for me also and the other guys to keep doing this."

DARK FUNERAL will release a new live album, "A Beast To Praise", on August 21, 2026 via Century Media Records. The LP was recorded at Fållan in Stockholm in 2022 and it captures DARK FUNERAL's live performance in support of "We Are The Apocalypse".

In March 2025, Lord Ahriman underwent his third hernia surgery.

1993 was the year it all began, Lord Ahriman and Blackmoon (1993-1996) founded the infernal war machine we now know as DARK FUNERAL, one of the most intense and prominent black metal acts ever. In January 1994, the legendary self-titled and independently financed debut mini album were recorded at Dan Swanö's Unisound Studio. It was released upon the unexpecting masses on May 4 the same year. The band quickly established themselves as a band to watch. Since then, a lot of things have happened. The band has released seven albums, the lineup has changed, and DARK FUNERAL has toured no less than 45 different countries with acts as DIMMU BORGIR, CANNIBAL CORPSE, DEICIDE, GOATWHORE, ENSLAVED and many more. The band's album "Diabolis Interim" was also nominated as best metal album at P3 Guld awards and "Where Shadows Forever Reign" was awarded twice, by Swedish P3 Guld and Germany's Metal Hammer Award.

A reworked version of DARK FUNERAL's debut album was made available in August 2024 via Century Media. "Dark Funeral (30th Anniversary Edition)" was remixed by David Castillo and remastered once again by Thomas "Plec" Johansson.