Dimmu Borgir - Grand Serpent Rising (2LP Dark Green Vinyl)

Eight years after their previous studio release Eonian, Dimmu Borgir return with thirteen punishing yet remarkably diverse tracks under the banner Grand Serpent Rising and even the sheer weight of the album title alone speaks volumes. ”It fits perfectly,” Silenoz nods. ”Dimmu Borgir is a leviathan of a band on a grand scale and we are rising once again. While the serpent represents evil to some, for us it symbolizes something else: renewal, growth, knowledge, and liberation. Shedding our skin, so to speak. And let’s not forget that February 2026 marks the end of the Year of the Snake, roughly the same moment this album was completed.” Once you descend into the treacherous journey charted by this Norwegian serpent, Silenoz’s words are immediately vindicated. Following the ominous intro ‘Tridentium,’ the opening track ‘Ascent’ strikes like lightning across a frozen, darkened northern sky. Aggressive, vicious, and twistedly beautiful, it instantly confirms that Dimmu Borgir have lost none of their intensity, menace, or authenticity. And the momentum never falters. Across nearly an hour of music, Grand Serpent Rising maintains an iron grip: it is a majestic and powerful statement that sounds like a band possessed by the feral energy of the early ’90s Norwegian black metal underground, while simultaneously wielding the compositional discipline and hard-earned wisdom forged through more than three decades of relentless creation.

1. Tridentium
2. Ascent
3. As Seen in the Unseen
4. The Qryptfarer
5. Ulvgjeld & Blodsodel
6. Repository of Divine Transmutation
7. Slik Minnes en Alkymist
8. Phantom of the Nemesis
9. The Exonerated
10. Recognizant
11. At the Precipice of Convergence
12. Shadows of a Thousand Perceptions
13. Gjǫll