THE BEAST

Today,  Shadow Records  (distributed & marketed by  Regain Records ) announces November 25th as the international release date for a brand-new mini-album from  Ofermod ,  Ofermodian Litanies , on CD and cassette tape formats. The vinyl LP version is expected for release on January 20th, 2023.

By now,  Ofermod  should require no introduction. Formed back in the dark days of 1996, the band released their debut EP,  Mystérion Tés Anomias , in 1998. Although a mere two songs,  Ofermod ’s opening salvo sowed the seeds for the orthodox black metal movement that would begin to blossom in the new millennium, alongside fellow  Shadow Records  alumni  Funeral Mist  and  Malign . Crime and chaos followed mainman Belfagor everywhere he went, and the band’s momentum remained halted. However,  Ofermod  eventually became a working entity again, starting with 2008’s  Tiamtü  full-length, and through magick and will did more recordings follow:  Thaumiel  (2012), the two-song  Serpents’ Dance  EP (2014), Sol Nox (2017), and the posthumous  Pentagrammaton , originally intended to be the band’s debut album. And just last year, a renewed and reinvigorated  Ofermod  released the acclaimed full-length  Mysterium Iniquitatus .

Each  Ofermod  recording always put forth a pivotal piece of their ever-evolving puzzle – ever the same, yet always different – and so it goes with the forthcoming mini-album  Ofermodian Litanies . Something of a “double EP,”  Ofermodian Litanies  features two brand-new songs recorded with the lineup of Belfagor on vocals, guitar, and bass and  Marduk ’s Simon “Bloodhammer” Schilling on drums; two tracks from the aforementioned  Serpents’ Dance  EP, long out of print; and an unreleased version of the title track to  Tiamtü . The two new tracks with Schilling on drums impart a stately mania that moves from grim strut to ghoulish fury, with Belfagor’s vocals always a hackle-raising centerpiece. Although many years removed and with a lineup that would carry forward to  Sol Nox , the two  Serpents’ Dance  tracks hold up exceptionally well, finding  Ofermod  at their ugliest and arguably most rabble-rousing – the hooligan to the ritualist, if you will. Recorded during those same sessions, the unreleased version of “Tiamtü” holds the same slow-burn intensity of the original, with the ritualist here perhaps replacing the hooligan. All material here was recorded, produced, and mastered by Magnus “Devo” Andersson at Endarker Studios, keeping the totality intact.

Compact yet somehow still expansive,  Ofermodian Litanies  is aptly titled.  Ofermod  illuminate both the past and present!

Find illumination with the brand-new track "Mundus Imaginalis" and the unreleased version of "Tiamtü"  HERE  at  Regain 's Bandcamp, where all formats can be preordered.