DIMMU BORGIR

With flickering flames and a faint smell of Sulphur, DIMMU BORGIR have returned. "Grand Serpent Rising" is the Norwegian legends' first album in eight years: further proof, as if it were needed, that black metal's most meticulous masters of the big occasion tend to take their own sweet time to get things done properly. An undying amalgam of the primitive and the cerebral, their sound has undergone numerous evolutions over the decades, and by the time they reached 2018's "Eonian", DIMMU BORGIR had become rambunctious maximalists, fueling art's ageless inferno from beneath countless, dense layers of musical information. As they emerge from a prolonged hiatus, core members Silenoz and Shagrath are bringing all that chaos and thunder back to life, but this time around, all that sonic excess is balanced out by a newfound earthiness and an underlying resolve to consolidate a towering legacy.

At 70 minutes in length, "Grand Serpent Rising" is clearly designed as a bold and confident comeback, and one that producer Fredrik Nordstrom has proclaimed to be the finest DIMMU BORGIR album yet. Whatever they do and whenever they do it, this band have an unerring gift for scene-stealing, main character dominance. Even before a note is heard, the self-evident fact that this is going to be one of the metal albums of 2026 is unquestionable. Fortunately, thanks to the dynamic duo's remorseless attention to detail and humble belief in the power of their music, "Grand Serpent Rising" arrives exactly as advertised. Graced with a production that is as vast and all-encompassing as ever, but with less reliance on orchestral indulgence and peripheral gimmicks, this 13-track malevolent marathon amounts to a partial reset, and a strenuous redefining of the ornate bombast that first made DIMMU BORGIR such darlings of the underground, some 30 years ago.

Primarily concerned with notions of "transformation, ego dissolution and awakening", the Norwegians' tenth full album of fresh material is both the best-sounding album of their careers and the most authentically extreme record that they have made in a long time. By removing some of the extraneous strings and electronics that brought such color to "Eonian" and its predecessor, 2010's "Abrahadabra", DIMMU BORGIR have given their elaborate, challenging songs more room to breathe. After the haunted, melodramatic overture of "Tridentium", "Ascent" erupts like some warped, supernatural fanfare, with scything riffs, thick clouds of gothic subterfuge, and so much suffocating charisma that resistance is utterly useless. The band's trademark, nefarious melodies are as potent and compelling as before, but there is a rawness to the barrage of guitars, and a sense of freewheeling ferocity that has, in the past, been routinely buried underneath an avalanche of keyboards. Thereafter, "Grand Serpent Rising" is a blur of dynamic brutality and elegant mystery, with songs that grow more immersive and impressive with each successive listen.

There are succinct and beautifully crafted songs like "As Seen in the Unseen" and "At the Precipice of Convergence", wherein razor-sharp hooks slice through dastardly atmospheres amid a swirling storm of riffs and decorative austerity. There are huge, marauding epics like "The Qryptfarer" and "The Exonerated", which resound with inspiration and hammer home the absurdly sophisticated formula that Silenoz and Shagrath have cultivated over the years. There are moments of heroically intense, heavy metal grandeur, including monstrous single "Ulvgjeld & Blodsodel" and certified album highlight "Phantom of the Nemesis": one of the few songs here that uses orchestral embellishments as core components, but that generates most of its pitch-black charm via a wonderfully florid and unsettling arrangement.

It takes a degree of testicular fortitude to disappear for eight years (2023's cool covers set "Inspiratio Profanus" notwithstanding) but DIMMU BORGIR have such a resolute and unwavering identity that "Grand Serpent Rising" simply feels like the next, logical step along the road. Fearsomely ambitious but reassuringly true to their original ethos, this may or may not be the finest album that the Norwegians have ever made (these things are entirely subjective, let's face it),but it is certainly a hugely powerful addition to an illustrious catalogue and an album that no other band on the planet would be able to make. Once again, a new DIMMU BORGIR album is a big fucking deal.