WATAIN Announces Disbanding After Release of Their Eighth Studio Album

Swedish black metal band WATAIN have confirmed that their upcoming eighth studio album will also be their last. With it they will bring to a close three decades of activity, officially marking the end of the band.

In a statement released on 20 September, titled “Solemn Transmission from the Temple of WATAIN”, the group explained that this final chapter will occur in the context of their 30th anniversary:

“In three years, with our eighth and last album, WATAIN will cease to exist. It will be the conclusion of a magical Work of thirty years, after which the band will return, intact and undefeated, to the primordial chaos that gave it life. This is not a farewell, but the first note of a sacrificial requiem.”

During this period, Erik Danielsson and company will continue performing live shows, composing, and releasing special material before the final dissolution. The band emphasized that the decision is not born of weariness or circumstances, but a conscious choice to shape their ending, “just as every song and stage has been shaped, in the fire of will.”

Formed in 1998, WATAIN became one of the most influential and controversial acts in the global black metal scene, known for their extreme albums and ceremonial live performances mixing the sacred with the most raw brutality.

Their most recent album, The Agony & Ecstasy Of Watain (2022), was released via Nuclear Blast. With the announcement of their eighth and final work, set for 2028, the group closes a thirty-year circle of music, controversy, and absolute devotion to extreme metal.

As Danielsson put it in a past interview:

“We have always worked near the limits of sanity and of what is permitted. WATAIN has never been for everyone, and that is just as it should be. Our path has been to live and create from the extremes.”

With this decision, WATAIN joins the ranks of bands choosing their own end, reaffirming their enigmatic aura and making clear that their legacy will be among the most intense and transcendent in black metal history.