DRAGONLAND has announced its seventh studio album, "Prophecies," set for release on October 23 via Scarlet Records, and shared the lead single "Survival Of Mankind."
The Swedish symphonic power metal band built "Prophecies" around the combination that's defined its catalog since the early 2000s: soaring melodies, fast riffing and heavy orchestration wrapped around epic fantasy narratives. "This record contains it all — epic fantasy stories, gripping ballads and blazingly fast power metal anthems," the band said of a tracklist that spans twelve songs, opens with "The Prophecy Unfolds," and closes with a bonus cover of FM-84's "Running In The Night." Production came from Fredrik Nordström at the genre-defining Studio Fredman, with artwork from Pedro Sena.
The album marks the band's first release since confirming the departure of longtime guitarist Olof Mörck, who also plays in AMARANTHE. DRAGONLAND described the split in amicable terms, calling Mörck "an old and dear friend," and the band's current lineup — vocalist Jonas Heidgert, guitarist Jesse Lindskog, keyboardist Elias Holmlid, bassist Anders Hammer and drummer Johan Nunez — carries "Prophecies" forward without him.
Formed in Falun, Sweden in the late 1990s, DRAGONLAND has spent more than two decades as one of the more theatrical corners of European power metal, leaning harder into fantasy and orchestral bombast than most of its peers. "Prophecies" arrives as the band's first new full-length in several years, with "Survival Of Mankind" positioned as an introduction to a lineup in transition but a sound very much intact.