In an interview with Jerry Kurunen of Finland’s Rauta conducted at this year’s Inferno festival, which took place in March 2024 in Oslo, Norway, DIMMU BORGIR guitarist Silenoz spoke about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band’s long-awaited new studio album. He said:  ”Well, we are working on new stuff. We have been working on, on and off, new stuff for quite a while. Also during the pandemic, there was some downtime where we worked on stuff on our own, individually, and then we meet and try to concoct a new brew, so to speak.

“I think the fans are, like, ‘Ah, you have to get out a new album,’ and blah, blah, blah, blah, but the thing is that we rather take our time and even take one year extra to make it better than good, if you know what I mean,” he explained. “Obviously, we would also like to have an album out as soon as we can, but we’re not gonna do that just to have it out.”

Asked about DIMMU BORGIR‘s stylistic changes over the years, particularly as it pertains to veering away from traditional Norwegian black metal, Silenoz said: “I think even on the first album, we started to drift off from the traditional so-called underground black metal thing. And we’ve always looked upon ourselves as something more than just that term. And it’s better to not be able to be labeled as this or that. It’s better that either you like the music, it gives you something, or it doesn’t touch you — it’s ‘either or’, basically. So, we always wanted to do different, new stuff on every album — that’s very important for us — but the thing is that it comes naturally. We don’t sit down and decide, ‘Oh, today we’re gonna make this and this type of song.’ It just comes in. And then if we like it, then we keep it. It’s pretty much that simple. But (2018’s) ‘Eonian’ is probably more orchestrated, which kind of started with ‘Abrahadabra’ in 2010. I mean, we always had that element, but we took it as far as we felt we could take it. Now maybe — who knows what the next one will sound like? It just takes on its own life, basically.”

On the topic of DIMMU BORGIR‘s lineup changes over the years, particularly in the band’s earlier days, Silenoz said: “I think after so many years, you kind of get to know yourself better. So that opens up for knowing the person around you better as well. I know that sounds weird. But I think age has definitely something to do with it. And it’s also important not only to be good in the writing moment, off stage you also have to get along really well. And I think that the age thing comes in there. So, yeah, it’s good to have a more stable lineup.”