Grand Serpent Rising [CD], Dimmu Borgir, CD

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.