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.

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.