It Takes Us A While

Dimmu Borgir has put out two records in the past 15 years – Abrahadabra in 2010, and Eonian in 2018. And while there’s been talk of a new album for a little while now, guitarist and vocalist Silenoz said the band still isn’t in a rush to put something out.

During an interview with Rauta, Silenoz said Dimmu Borgir would collectively rather take too long making a great album than crap something out that isn’t up to their standards.

“We are working on new stuff,” said Silenoz as transcribed by Metal Injection. “We have been working on and off [on the] new stuff for quite a while. During the pandemic there was some downtime where we worked on stuff on our own, like individually, and then we meet and [are] trying to concoct a new brew, so to speak. It’s been… I think the fans are like, ‘ah you have to get out a new album’ and blah blah blah, but the thing is that we’d rather take our time and even take one year extra to make it better than good, if you know what I mean. So obviously we would also like to have an album out as soon as we can, but we’re not going to do that.”

He later added: “We hope to be active and hope to have more new music out to share with the fans – new fans of course, that’s also our aim – but yeah, it takes us a while. I think it’s safe to say that the longer people have to wait, the better the result is going to be.”

In a late 2023 interview with FaceCulture, Silenoz addressed the the long wait for new music as well, highlighting Dimmu Borgir‘s desire to avoid “selling out” by simply repeating past successes.

“It could have been fairly easy to do Enthrone Darkness Triumphant Part Two, and we could have done albums like that every third year or second year, but, to be honest, what would be the point in that, to have an album almost identical to what some fans classify as a classic. So that would be the easy way out and the path of least resistance.

“And that would also, in my eyes, be a selling-out point because you would do something that’s less challenging and cash in on that. But that’s not how we have worked ever; we never compromise and we always take the time we feel is needed to finish an album. If it takes eight years as it did now — it shouldn’t have done that, obviously — but it is what it is. An album is finished when it’s finished.”

While the exact release date remains elusive, Silenoz revealed that the band has a tentative timeline in place. They’re currently working on six to seven songs, which have already been demoed with vocals.

“We have sort of a timeline. I think that’s good, but it shouldn’t be set in stone, but I think it’s good to have a timeframe to work towards, at least when you start getting six, seven, eight songs, as we’re up in now, and demoed with vocals and all that stuff. And we picked up the process now, so it’s looking good, yeah. It’s sounding good, I should say.”