In a new interview with Colombia’s Savage Noise Media, vocalist/bassist Stian “Nagash” Arnesen of THE KOVENANT confirmed that the band is working on material for its first studio album in more than 20 years. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Well, we already have several songs written. With me, I hate to do the same album twice. I don’t play in AC/DC, so you’re not going to get the same album for 40 years. So, the new album, it’s different from all the others, but it is more metal. It’s a bit darker, but it’s a mix between all the albums, plus new stuff, of course, ’cause it’s been such a long time and everyone has evolved as musicians and stuff. But it sounds very KOVENANT. The people I’ve played the demo tracks to so far, they all say, like, ‘Holy shit, this sounds like KOVENANT.’ So it’s not like we’re going back either with this new one, like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna do ‘Nexus Polaris’ part two’ or something. But there are some elements from ‘Nexus’ that we have on the new album, like all this whole symphonic, a little bit technical, weird riffs and stuff.”
Regarding THE KOVENANT plans for the coming months, Nagash said: “We have a lot more shows to do, including the South American stuff [in September 2025]. Also today it was announced, we’re playing Inferno Festival in Norway. It’s been like 20 years or something since we did it last time. We have a few more festivals, but then we’re gonna focus on the new album, to get that released. So, basically, it’s me and [Steinar] Sverd [Johnsen, keyboards] who are writing at the moment, most of it. But then we also have the new guitarists, both of them, Ghul [Charles Hedger] from MAYHEM also joined, and Knut [Magne Valle] from ARCTURUS, and they both have very interesting approaches to music. And we’re gonna include all of that. So we’re gonna focus on the new album, for sure. Not just one, but more.”
On the topic of which record label THE KOVENANT is working with at the moment, Nagash said: “We have interest from a lot of labels. We have a really great management who also does EMPEROR and SAMAEL and bands like this. And he’s very respected in the whole industry, so we are relying a lot on him to help us with the deals, ’cause we have lots of interest from big labels, medium labels, even smaller labels. So we’ll see what we’re gonna do.”
In a separate interview with Colombia’s iRock, Nagash was asked if he believes THE KOVENANT, after having gone through several lineup changes, is tied to specific members or it’s more of a conceptual project that can survive beyond who is in the band at any given time. He responded: “Um, [that’s a] hard question, actually. So even if the band — take CRADLE OF FILTH or DIMMU BORGIR as an example, even if they change members, it still kind of stays the same. A little bit changes, small differences here and there, but with KOVENANT it’s very different because the only thing we’re not trying to do is to recreate the same album twice. That’s the only thing I refuse to do, ’cause I don’t play in fucking AC/DC or KISS, so I don’t want to do the same album for 40 years, like ‘Nexus Polaris’ one, two, three, four, five, six and stuff. I also like to experiment with things. If I hear something cool and I want to try it in music, I will, because I don’t give a shit what other people think. So in that regard, I think KOVENANT is very different from a lot of bands when it comes to that. The members influence the music, of course, but I think the main essence of the band has always been myself and the guy [Amund Svensson] I also started KOVENANT with, Blackheart or Psy Coma, as he is also known, even though he is not with us anymore in the band. It’s just how I am as a person. So I can’t release the same album again and again and again. It’s fucking boring. And you could probably make a lot of money from it and stuff, but I’m not in this for the money. I do this because I like to create music. I like to talk to people. I like to have a message and stuff like this.”
THE KOVENANT returned to the live stage last December at the Eindhoven Metal Meeting festival in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
At its recent shows, THE KOVENANT, which won a Norwegian Grammy equivalent, called Spellemannsprisen, in 1999 in the category of “Best Hard Rock Album” for the “Nexus Polaris” LP, performed that effort in its entirety, along with tracks from “Animatronic”, plus classics from THE KOVENANT‘s debut album, “In Times Before The Light”.
While the band faces challenges with the absence of founding member Psy Coma due to health issues, the aforementioned Knut Magne Valle from the legendary band ARCTURUS has stepped in to ensure that the magic continues to flow seamlessly.
THE KOVENANT was formed in 1993 under the name COVENANT by two black metal artists known as Nagash (Stian Arnesen) and Blackheart (Amund Svensson),who released the debut album, “In Times Before The Light” (1997). The band signed with the German record company Nuclear Blast in 1998 and recruited four other members to form an actual band: Astennu (of DIMMU BORGIR, CARPE TENEBRUM),Sverd (of ARCTURUS),Sarah Jezebel Deva (of CRADLE OF FILTH and others) and Hellhammer (of MAYHEM and others). With these new recruits, they released their second album, “Nexus Polaris”, which was hugely successful and is largely considered their best album to date by fans.
Following a dispute with a Swedish electronic band of the same name, in 1999 COVENANT changed its name to THE KOVENANT. The name change also signaled a musical shift into an industrial metal-influenced sound.
In the beginning THE KOVENANT had a sound much similar to DIMMU BORGIR. Indeed, Nagash has played in the band and is a longtime friend to the lead vocalist Shagrath. On the “Nexus Polaris” album, the band developed a more industrial sound but still with a strong symphonic black metal influence. A re-release of “Nexus Polaris” was made in 2002. The original tracks were left untouched but two versions of “New World Order”, a song from their 1999 album “Animatronic”, were included as a bonus.
