Silenoz (Dimmu Borgir) reveals more about the reasons behind the long time between “Eonian” and “Grand Serpent Rising”

Dimmu Borgir guitarist Sven “Silenoz” Kopperud discussed the band’s upcoming album, “Grand Serpent Rising,” which will be released on May 22 via Nuclear Blast Records, in a recent interview with KillerTube, as per Blabbermouth. When asked how the “serpent” concept of “shedding skin and renewal” corresponds to the experiences Dimmu Borgir has had in the eight years since the release of their previous album, “Eonian” (2018), Silenoz responded as follows.

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.

In order to be ready for the “Grand Serpent Rising” recording sessions, Silenoz also discussed the process of “cutting the fat” off the Dimmu Borgir songs. When asked how difficult “to let go of some of that stuff” was, Silenoz responded as follows.

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. 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.

Silenoz continued by saying that he didn’t let his expectations for the “Grand Serpent Rising” album negatively impact the composition process.

If you do something and you don’t expect a reward for it, that’s usually when the great things come, 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.

Upcoming shows with Suffocation, Hypocrisy and Hulder:

• Friday, August 7, 2026 – New York, NY, USA – Palladium Times Square
• Saturday, August 8, 2026 – Worcester, MA, USA – The Palladium
• Monday, August 10, 2026 – Toronto, ON, Canada – HISTORY
• Tuesday, August 11, 2026 – Montréal, QC, Canada – MTELUS
• Thursday, August 13, 2026 – Cleveland, OH, USA – Agora Theater
• Friday, August 14, 2026 – Chicago, IL, USA – The Vic Theatre
• Saturday, August 15, 2026 – Minneapolis, MN, USA – The Fillmore
• Tuesday, August 18, 2026 – Denver, CO, USA – The Mission Ballroom
• Friday, August 21, 2026 – San Francisco, CA, USA – The Warfield
• Sunday, August 23, 2026 – Los Angeles, CA, USA – The Novo

With Behemoth and 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 – Zenith18 Oct – Den Bosch, Netherlands – Mainstage
• 17 Oct – London, United Kingdom – O2 Academy Brixton
• 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
• 31 Oct – Oslo, Norway – Spektrum (with Satyricon, Enslaved)