Silenoz reveals more about Dimmu Borgir’s upcoming new album

Guitarist Sven “Silenoz” Kopperud of Norwegian symphonic black metallers Dimmu Borgir 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 Australia’s Everblack podcast, as per Blabbermouth. Silenoz made this statement on his expectations for the endeavour.

Of course you have an anticipation for how you want the public to receive it. But at the end of the day, we feel strongly about it and we feel like we’ve done a collection of great songs, and that’s essentially what the new album is. If it stands the test of time as one of our better albums, then so be it. That remains to be seen. But I think we have accomplished the goal, which was to make another new good-sounding record.

I think especially the previous [album, 2018’s ‘Eonian’], and maybe this new one even more so, it’s something that some of it hits immediately and some might need some extra time, which is always usually a sign of a great record. Some records are immediate and they still continue to be great 15, 20 years later, but it all comes down to a combination of what you probably expect, want and need from your artists, I guess. And a new record is always a subjective thing, isn’t it? So it’s bound to disappoint a lot of people, even before they’ve heard it. But that’s the day and age we live in, isn’t it

Silenoz responded as follows when asked if he and his Dimmu Borgir comrades felt under any pressure to do anything exceptional this time.

It might sound cocky, but I think if there is any pressure, it’s the one that we put on ourselves and not from exterior things. Obviously, after so many years, decades of being in the band and releasing albums, you always have in the back of your mind, even though you don’t think about it very often, but it’s still there, it’s like, yeah, obviously you want the audience and your fans to approve of what you do and that you put so many hours and [so much] energy into it. But at the end of the day, talking to you now, before it even actually has been released, which [will be] the 22nd of May, it’s already a success in many ways because we have accomplished what we set out to do and that’s to make a collection of great songs as a new album, and do it our way, without compromising in any field. So that makes me proud already. But, of course, the ‘thumbs up’ and that people love it and will go and see us at the shows and stuff, that’s the bonus. That’s the top cream of the cake, basically.

Silenoz also discussed the “killing your darlings” aspect of composition, which entails eliminating some of his favourite melodies, lyrics, or passages that he adores but that don’t contribute to the overall goal of the song.

It’s the crucial part where the producer in you comes out, and you have to, as much as it hurts, put a lot of your ego aside and see things from the outside and look at the songs as a whole chapter, basically. And imagine all the great parts, all the great pieces of music and lyrics that didn’t make it to this album. I mean, the percentage that made it to the album in terms of songs are smaller than the material that we had to work with. And, of course, it’s a slap to the ego in the sense that, yeah, we all have parts that we have worked on for hours and hours, and it doesn’t make it to the album in the end because it’s not ready for being put into a song or a piece of music. So it’s still a great piece of music, but it’s being shelved for now, and see if maybe later at some point, it’s the right time to use it. Who knows? It’s just a part of being an artist and a creative person, is that you have to sacrifice to get to the end goal, which is to finalize the album. And, of course, when you don’t really have a particular deadline for recording and stuff like that, things can drag on, because you feel like, ‘Oh, we can still have time to work on this.’ But I think this time we just made the decision to, ‘Well, we have enough material now. Let’s work on that and let’s shave off and trim off the fat and book the time in the studio so we have, actually, a conclusive timeframe.’ That’s a difficult and the challenging part when you not necessarily have a deadline.

Once again, “Grand Serpent Rising” was recorded in Gothenburg with renowned producer Fredrik Nordström, the ultimate professional behind Dimmu Borgir hits like “Death Cult Armageddon” and “Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia”. Silenoz responded as follows when asked what Nordström pulled out of him and his bandmates this time that some of the other producers Dimmu Borgir had worked with didn’t or hadn’t.

What they have in common — I think I can speak for all of the people that we worked with over the years — is that they do their best to bring the best out of us, and they do because there are no shortcuts here. I mean, we come very well prepared to the studio. We have demoed every song down to the last little detail that we think is crucial for it to sound. So it’s easier for us to have an overview already before we start the main tracking of the album, basically, which is a re-tracking in terms of you gotta get the real drums on there instead of the programmed drums that we have been working on. And also re-record everything and adjust everything with guitars, keyboards, and vocals and leads and all that stuff. But we already have that as a demo, so we know what type of highlights in each song that needs to be at the forefront. And I think Fredrik, he was very impressed and thankful that we come so prepared, and I think that’s also, of course, a result of us taking the time it takes and taking the time it needs to finish it. And so for us, the album is, in many ways, I guess you can say, it’s finished before we start recording with Fredrik because we lived with these songs so many years already. Some of them are from 2018, 2019. And so for us it’s basically just go into the studio and re-record everything and to get the full production out of all the songs, basically. So, in that sense, Fredrik, he obviously has no say in the way the songs are structured, but he can always come up with a solution to maybe highlight an idea or a detail and we see what that sounds like in the mix. And it was, like, ‘Yeah, why not do it like this?’ So there’s very little room for improvisation once we actually start recording the album, ’cause we have been living with the songs for so long and we have taken it apart, tweaked and twisted it around like you have no idea and re-edited pieces here and there, back and forth. So once we go into the studio to record, we are totally focused on the actual performance of the songs and not like, ‘Oh, we can change the song around here.’ Then that part of it is already done.

Silenoz also talked about his long-standing collaboration with Stian “Shagrath” Thoresen, the singer of Dimmu Borgir, with whom he created the band in 1993. The guitarist made this statement about how they have dealt with all the changes in the music business and the difficulties they have encountered over the past thirty years.

I think it’s not always easy, and I think something great never comes out of doing things easy or doing shortcuts and going the easy way. It takes a lot of determination, focus, stubbornness and being at the right time and place more than once. Actually, you have to be at the right place and time, every time. [Laughs] And you have to work at it. It’s, like, if you look at successful bands, imagine how many times they have failed. But that doesn’t come to the surface. People only see the successes. So, I think both me and Shagrath have the same amount of determination and ownership to what we have created over the years. We were there since the beginning, and we are just the same driven people. We are definitely very different in many ways, but we also have things in common, which is for the benefit of the band and for the music that we make. And despite common belief, I guess, we do agree more than we disagree. [Laughs] So I’m really proud that even if you have disagreements along the way, which you should have, doing it for this long, that’s just normal, I’m proud that we actually are still on the same page when it comes to the major things.”

At the end of the day, the feeling is still there as it was in the beginning because we do this because we want to, not because we have to. And it’s a huge difference. I mean, if we did this because we had to, we would’ve released an album every second year, because it would look better on the bank account and we could use that as an excuse to tour more often. But that’s not the case. We do this because we love creating art and, yeah, we love to take our time doing it, that’s for sure. I’ll take that. But it is what it is. And I think to make something a great product, you have to really sacrifice to get there. And people have no effing idea what sacrifice really means. So, I think that’s the main clue.

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)