Norwegian symphonic black metal veterans Dimmu Borgir will release their next studio album, Grand Serpent Rising, on May 22 through Nuclear Blast Records. The upcoming record marks the group’s first full-length effort in eight years, following 2018’s Eonian. It also represents a new chapter for the band’s lineup, acting as their first album without longtime guitarist Galder, who exited the group in August 2024. He was officially replaced in 2025 by guitarist Kjell Åge “Damage” Karlsen, who made his live debut with the band at the Tons of Rock festival in Oslo last June.
During a recent appearance on “KillerTube“, guitarist Sven “Silenoz” Kopperud detailed the extensive gap between releases. He explained how the album’s thematic focus on serpent imagery, specifically the concept of shedding skin and renewal, directly mirrors the band’s creative struggles and sacrifices over the past decade.
“We’ve had to shed quite a lot, as usual, maybe more than previously. But it’s all a good thing. I feel like great things shouldn’t be easily achieved. It should include a lot of sacrifice, and that’s what we feel like we have done with this record. And it just sucks that it took us eight years to have it out. But there you go. I’d rather have quality over quantity any day. So, whenever we feel ready to release it upon the world, that’s when we do it,” Silenoz said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
Preparing the material for Grand Serpent Rising required heavy editing to trim the excess from their complex arrangements. The guitarist acknowledged that leaving strong musical ideas on the cutting room floor is a difficult but necessary requirement of their songwriting process.
“It can be challenging. It’s like if you have worked on a musical part for like weeks and months and it doesn’t find it way into a song for whatever reason, and it’s still a great piece of music that doesn’t make it to the album — it happens more than once,” he continued. “And it’s part of being an artist. You have to write for what’s best for the songs. You cannot force things in there just to have a piece of the pie extra. That doesn’t work for the overall picture. So, I think we’ve gotten a lot better doing it the way we do it on this album, the last few times, because, yeah, it just feels the flow is there a bit more, I think, and we try not to analyze it to death. I think that’s also very important, that you do spontaneous things and you take things as they come.”
He further noted that Dimmu Borgir intentionally blocks out external pressures and expectations to protect the integrity of their music, keeping their motivations strictly artistic rather than commercial.
“If you do something and you don’t expect a reward for it, that’s usually when the great things come,” Silenoz concluded. “If you try and force things to you, then that’s just going to go further away then. Obviously, we don’t mind the ‘thumbs up’ and people coming to our shows — this is what we do for a living — but we would still do it in whatever level we would be at, ’cause it’s part of you. And if we did it for other reasons, we would have an album out every year.”
Grand Serpent Rising Track Listing:
- “Tridentium”
- “Ascent”
- “The Qryptfarer”
- “As Seen in the Unseen”
- “Ulvgjeld & Blodsodel”
- “Repository of Divine Transmutation”
- “Slik Minnes en Alkymist”
- “Phantom of the Nemesis”
- “The Exonerated”
- “Recognizant”
- “At the Precipice of Convergence”
- “Shadows of a Thousand Perceptions”
- “Gjǫll”
In support of the new material, Dimmu Borgir will launch a major North American tour late this summer. The trek marks the band’s first run in the territory since 2018 and will feature support from Hypocrisy, Suffocation, and Hulder.
Following their time in the United States and Canada, the band will return to Europe in October for a massive co-headlining run dubbed the “In League With Satan” tour alongside Polish extreme metal act Behemoth. Swedish black metal veterans Dark Funeral will join as special guests for the European leg. The tour concludes with a standalone routing in Oslo featuring a different support package of Satyricon and Enslaved.
Dimmu Borgir 2026 North American Tour Dates (with Hypocrisy, Suffocation, and Hulder):
- 07 Aug – New York, NY – Palladium Times Square
- 08 Aug – Worcester, MA – The Palladium
- 10 Aug – Toronto, ON – History
- 13 Aug – Cleveland, OH – Agora Theatre
- 14 Aug – Chicago, IL – The Vic Theatre
- 15 Aug – Minneapolis, MN – The Fillmore
- 18 Aug – Denver, CO – The Mission Ballroom
- 21 Aug – San Francisco, CA – The Warfield
- 23 Aug – Los Angeles, CA – The Novo
Dimmu Borgir and Behemoth 2026 “In League With Satan” European Tour Dates (with Dark Funeral):
- 09 Oct – Zurich, Switzerland – Halle 622
- 10 Oct – Zwickau, Germany – Sparkassen-Arena Zwickau
- 11 Oct – Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg – Rockhal
- 13 Oct – Milan, Italy – Alcatraz
- 14 Oct – Munich, Germany – Zenith
- 16 Oct – Paris, France – Zenith
- 18 Oct – Den Bosch, Netherlands – Mainstage
- 20 Oct – Cologne, Germany – Palladium
- 22 Oct – Hamburg, Germany – Inselpark Arena
- 23 Oct – Berlin, Germany – Columbiahalle
- 24 Oct – Brno, Czech Republic – Hala Vodova
- 27 Oct – Helsinki, Finland – Ice Hall
- 29 Oct – Stockholm, Sweden – B-K
- 30 Oct – Copenhagen, Denmark – K.B. Hallen
Dimmu Borgir Oslo Date (with Satyricon and Enslaved):
- 31 Oct – Oslo, Norway – Oslo Spektrum Arena
