Grand Serpent Rising is the tenth studio album by Norwegian symphonic black metal titans Dimmu Borgir, released on May 22, 2026 via Nuclear Blast Records — their first new material in eight years following 2018's Eonian, itself an eight-year follow-up to Abrahadabra. The album was recorded at Studio Fredman in Gothenburg with producer Fredrik Nordström, whose previous collaborations with the band — Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia (2001), Death Cult Armageddon (2003), and In Sorte Diaboli (2007) — represent some of the most celebrated records in their catalogue. The reunion with Nordström proved significant: Blabbermouth described it as both the best-sounding album of Dimmu's career and the most authentically extreme record they have made in a long time, noting a partial reset that strips back some of the orchestral indulgence of recent releases in favor of a more direct and ferocious approach. The album also marks the first Dimmu record since 1999's Spiritual Black Dimensions without guitarist Galder, who departed in 2024 to revive his solo project Old Man's Child, leaving founding duo Shagrath and Silenoz to carry the record forward.Across 13 tracks and nearly 70 minutes, Grand Serpent Rising was designed as a deliberately wide-ranging statement — guitarist Silenoz described it as covering "most of our catalogue," with material that is "more stripped-down, some epic stuff still there, some modern stuff and some old stuff." The album's title draws on serpent symbolism to evoke themes of renewal, transformation, knowledge, and ego dissolution, coinciding with the end of the Year of the Serpent. In a meaningful callback to the band's early roots, lead single "Ulvgjeld & Blodsodel" and the track "Slik Minnes en Alkymist" feature vocalist Shagrath performing in Norwegian — the first time the band has done so since Stormblåst MMV in 2005. The album was released alongside a European co-headlining tour with Behemoth, supported by Dark Funeral.
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