{"id":597921,"date":"2026-05-22T11:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T11:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/597921\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T11:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T11:42:08","slug":"album-review-dimmu-borgir-grand-serpent-rising-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/597921\/","title":{"rendered":"Album review: Dimmu Borgir \u2013 Grand Serpent Rising"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">Silenoz has said that the album\u2019s titular serpent represents renewal, its skin-shedding allowing for growth and evolution. It\u2019s an idea which resonates through lyrics which reach for transformation and transcendence, particularly on the alternately doomy and dreamy Repository Of Divine Transmutation.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The only real issue with Grand Serpent Rising is that there is so much of it. Sure, it\u2019s entirely fitting that a band with such maximalist tendencies in their composition should unleash a 70-minute epic. But by the album\u2019s closing stretch, the relentless exposure to constant blackened proggery starts to feel like overload. Closer Gj\u01ebll does feature what appear to be owl samples, though, so that\u2019s nice.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Given the lengthy gestation that has come to characterise Dimmu releases, Grand Serpent Rising could end up their only studio album of the 2020s, perhaps allowing time to absorb its surplus of ideas. Even so, some judicious pruning would have left it standing even grander.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Verdict: 3\/5<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">For fans of: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kerrang.com\/artists\/cradle-of-filth\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cradle Of Filth<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kerrang.com\/artists\/behemoth\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Behemoth<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kerrang.com\/artists\/satyricon\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Satyricon<\/a><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Grand Serpent Rising is out now via Nuclear Blast<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Silenoz has said that the album\u2019s titular serpent represents renewal, its skin-shedding allowing for growth and evolution. It\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-597921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}