DARK FUNERAL have a new studio album close to done. Founder, guitarist and sole constant member Lord Ahriman — Jan Michael Svanberg — told Blabbermouth that the songs are almost finished, that he had spent the week recording bass, and that vocalist Heljarmadr's first tracks are already landing in his inbox.
"It's only pre-production so far," he said. "This morning, I got a new vocal track from Heljarmadr. I'll start working on that... We've been working very hard on this record. I'm happy to say that we're near the finish line of completing the songs. I'm excited about this. It's very good. I'm very happy."
Direction, he says, was the hard part. Lord Ahriman does not start writing without knowing where a record is going, and this time that took a while to find. "I felt like I needed to find a way to get myself inspired, to find those new things that I can bring into the songs without going way off the map," he said. What broke it open was dropping the boundaries he had set himself. The verdict from the handful of people who have heard the songs surprised him: the same DARK FUNERAL, with a lot of new ideas balanced into it. "The hardest part of this was finding ways to keep myself inspired and not just repeating a safe formula."
First, though, the current chapter has to be shut. "A Beast To Praise" is the band's second live album and their first since 2004's "De Profundis Clamavi ad Te Domine". It was recorded at Fållan in Stockholm on April 16, 2022 — the release party for "We Are The Apocalypse", and one of the first shows in the city after the pandemic shutdowns.
That is why this one worked when earlier attempts did not. "We've been trying to record a lot of shows over the years, but none of them turned out good," Lord Ahriman said. "This show was very special... Everybody was like, 'Okay. Are people going to show up?'... It turned out to be a great idea because the chemistry — this is a once-in-a-lifetime moment, I hope."
Black metal bands do not generally put out live albums. He does not see the problem. "We're not like everybody else. We do things our way... People want to experience us live in every corner of the world. Everybody doesn't get the chance."
The setlist question gets harder every record. The band tries to pull a song or two from each album into a set that usually runs 60 to 70 minutes. "On the other hand, I don't think people want to watch a two-hour DARK FUNERAL show with blast beats," he laughed.
Thirty years in, with a European autumn ahead and a new record behind it, he is not treating the milestone as a milestone. "Here we are, 30 years; I'm trying to top it. I'm still as hungry as ever. That's never faded."