Dimmu Borgir: Letting The Beast Take The Front Seat
Since their formation in 1993, Norwegian black metal linchpin DIMMU BORGIR have continued to proudly march to the beat of their own drum in a genre littered with controversy. Their star studded back catalogue speaks for itself and at long last, 2026 marks their triumphant return with 10th studio album Grand Serpent Rising. “We’ve been away for a while. It’s been eight years since the last album. So when you come back you have to make sure that you have a decent fucking record to back it up!” Declares founding guitarist Sven ‘Silenoz’ Kopperud. “It also needs to come with a cool album title that represents that journey. This album felt like a revival of sorts, like a snake shedding its skin.”
With such a devoted fan base and a lofty reputation it can be a lot of pressure to bear, ensuring you make the desired impact, particularly after a considerable absence. However, with experience comes confidence in your own abilities. “I think most of the expectations are the ones we put on ourselves,” admits Silenoz. “Obviously we want the fans to like what we do as at the end of the day, they allow us to continue doing this. We want to be worth our salt, but when we’re out of the studio and we’ve accomplished what we want to do it already feels like a success.”
Avoiding complacency can play a big factor with a band of such impressive longevity. Whilst Silenoz and accompanying founder Stian ‘Shagrath’ Thoresen are evidently proud of their legacy, they are also very driven to continue to push themselves creatively. “I think the further you get into your career, the more you develop a style and a certain way of writing songs and that’s how it has always been for me but we still make it sound fresh and exciting,” discusses Silenoz. “I feel like this album gives a lot of nods to the old school albums but with a modern edge so it’s all merged together in a nice camouflaged way. Sometimes you can’t get away from your own style. You can listen to a piece of music and immediately identify that it is IRON MAIDEN or JUDAS PRIEST. It’s just finding a way to keep reinveinting yourselves. When we started writing the first couple of songs we didn’t have a distinct idea of how we wanted the album to sound, you just have to let the beast take the front seat and go along for the ride. By the time you’re at the fifth or sixth song you tend to have a better overview.”
Silenoz and Shagrath are deemed to be the last remaining core members of DIMMU BORGIR, but throughout the years they have constructed a reliable group of touring musicians who have since become integral components in their operations. “Everyone was involved in the writing process” confirms Silenoz. “The bulk of the material that was brought to the table came from Shagrath and myself but the album wouldn’t sound the way it does without all of their input. I’m really pleased with how the final product turned out. For the most part we’ve had the same lineup for eight years playing live so we’ve gotten to know each other really well on and off stage. Daray (drums) has also been with us for the best part of twenty years and whilst we’ve gotten a lot older we try not to think about all of that. We still have a lot to say so we’re looking forward to the future.”
Grand Serpent Rising includes numerous tracks utilising their native tongue, a decision they haven’t opted for since the earlier stages of their career. “I was working on some lyrics where I was struggling to put what I was feeling down into words,” states Silenoz. “When I started to translate the English into Norwegian everything started to click into place and make sense. Before I knew it I was finding multiple tracks where the same logic applied. It worked really well and it also tied back to the old school DIMMU BORGIR albums.”
The opportunity to tour the world and sharing your music with as many people as possible is one of the pinnacle experiences of being in a band. The only issue is you have a limited time on stage every night to be able to showcase your material. With a catalogue bursting with fan favourites, this has become an unenviable task for Silenoz and company. “We’ve been throwing ideas back and forth for what we want to play when we’re back on the road and as you can imagine we want to cover as many era’s of our catalogue as possible. We also want to throw in a few curve balls to get the fans, and ourselves excited too. There are always some songs you cannot get away from, SLAYER couldn’t suddenly stop playing Angel of Death, right? After 30+ years of doing this we’re seeing all kinds of different generations at our shows. Like people bringing their kids and it makes me realise we’re actually pretty old! It’s cool to see we are still managing to draw big crowds to our shows.”
Grand Serpent Rising also sees a return of esteemed producer Fredrik Nordström. A man who requires little introduction, having worked with some of the most prestigious metal bands in the world. “He did such a great job of remixing and remastering the Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia album for the anniversary reissue so it felt right to get him involved in the new album too,” explains Silenoz. “It was cool to return to that level of familiarity too as we didn’t want to take a gamble on working with a new studio team or engineer. Listening to the results, Fredrik was the right choice. He did an amazing job with the mix.”
DIMMU BORGIR have ascended to the lofty heights that some bands can only dream of, touring worldwide with critically acclaimed albums in tow. Being 30 years and change deep into their accomplished career, Silenoz feels like himself and his compatriots still have plenty to contribute. “I’ve had this conviction since I was a kid, that I was born to do this and I don’t feel like I’m very good at anything else. I have no other choice! I feel like I still have a lot to offer creatively and we still have the passion and drive, more than ever. We’re going to ride this wave as far as it’ll take us!”
Grand Serpent Rising is out now via Nuclear Blast Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS here.
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