DARK FUNERAL: Legal Battle With MNW/NO FASHION RECORDS Finally Over

Swedish black metallers DARK FUNERAL have obtained the rights to their back catalogue (including the publishing rights) — "The Secrets Of The Black Arts" (1996),"Vobiscum Satanas" (1998),"Teach Children To Worship Satan" (2000) and "Diabolis Interium" (2001) — following a lengthy legal battle with their previous record label, MNW/No Fashion Records.

Commented guitarist Lord Ahriman (real name: Micke Svanberg): "From now on, NO one but Caligula [vocalist Emperor Magus Caligula, a.k.a. Masse Broberg] and I own the rights to above-mentioned albums.

"One may believe I/we would be totally thrilled about this, be running around in pentagrams, throwing bibles in a fire and whatnot, but I honestly feel pretty empty. Guess it'll take a while to let it all sunk in to realize that this battle finally is over, after seven fucking years! I'm sure I'll get it all eventually…and celebrate it one way or another. But right now I feel nothing.

"Anyway, somehow I feel that this is already old news, an old chapter in our dark saga. And I won't spend any more of my valuable time to ever put 'their' name in my mouth again. So let us just put this behind us immediately. Let us now focus on gathering some new energy, look at the future — a future without label hassles and such utterly bullshit. It's time to set full course to complete the new album, booking new tours among many other grand things, which I know many of you are waiting for. Basically, let's get busy again, and foremost, enjoy being busy again!"

DARK FUNERAL released "Attera Orbis Terrarum - Part II", the second DVD recorded during the band's world tour in support of the "Attera Totus Sanctus" album, on October 20. A trailer for the set can be viewed below.

DARK FUNERAL is currently working on material for its new studio album for a 2009 release. Guitarist Lord Ahriman stated about the new songs, "We're heading for a bit heavier and a more varied sound, with perhaps not as much blast beats as before, giving more space for the drums to give the songs a more bombastic touch. Now when we are fortunate to have a new AMAZINGLY SKILLED drummer (Dominator) we want to give him as much space as possible to put on a real wicked drum performance for each new song. If we would use the same or similar blast beat patterns as before we would obviously limit him too much. And that's something we simply want to avoid at all cost. But don't worry, the intense blast beats are still a big part of our sound. And Mr. Dominator will for sure get his fair share to punish that snare in 666bpm. But there will be more drum work this time around. The material that is written so far is our most melancholic and epic yet. One of the songs is what we in 'our' terms would call a 'ballad' ('Goddess of Sodomy'/'Atrum Regina' type of song). And if you feel that one of those songs is melancholic, you will be in for a bit surprise with this 'Russian funeral symphony' (that's a working name only, of course, but it describes the black aura of the song pretty well, I think). Another suitable title for this dark hymn could even be 'Dark Funeral', but that's still to be figured out."

Released in 2005, DARK FUNERAL's latest album, "Attera Totus Sanctus", was recorded and mixed by Daniel Bergstrand (MESHUGGAH, STRAPPING YOUNG LAD, IN FLAMES, BEHEMOTH) and Örjan Örnkloo at Dug-Out studios in Uppsala, Sweden. Mastering duties were handled by Tomas Eberger at the Cutting Room in Stockholm, Sweden. The album features a guest appearance by former MESHUGGAH bassist Gustaf Hielm.