Haimad, a melodic and symphonic black metal band from Sweden, will release their debut album When Night Rode Across the North on November 7th, 2025 via Northern Silence Productions. The record draws on the Scandinavian tradition of the mid 1990s, uniting orchestral sweep with cold, driving riffs and Tolkien-laced imagery.
About the band
Back in 1994, when black metal was relatively young, underground and deadly serious, a group of young men gathered in Sundsvall, Sweden to form a coven of occult worship in order to spread the dark arts. Their quest to enlighten and convert started with the release of A Dream Vision Vanished in 1995 and progressed to the birth of the Arte de Occulta EP release The Horned Moon in 1996.
At the height of the 90s wave of melodic black metal, the group then participated with the song Under Spread Wings of Eternal Darkness on the classic Full Moon Productions sampler A Tribute to Hell.
Encountering hardships of death and despair on their dark and spiraling path, the band was forced to take a break until 1999, when lead guitarist Azradan again picked up the torch and the remaining members of Haimad opened another chapter with the Majestic EP. After that release the band went on a long hiatus.
Haimad today
Many years went by without a sign of life before Azradan, now the only remaining founding member, set out to resurrect the band once more and recruited a new lineup, in order to turn his powerful vision of symphonic black metal in the best tradition of the Scandinavian mid-90s into reality. And who else but musicians who were part of that same scene back then would be able to create something that reminds so powerfully of the good old days? Thus, Haimad returned, and stronger than ever!
Twenty-five years after their founding, Haimad released an EP that was a dream come true for any fan of albums like The Sad Realm of the Stars, Seen Through the Veils of Darkness, Stormblåst, or Tusen År Har Gått. If one has grown up with these milestones, listening to Haimad‘s The Return was like coming home after a long time away, because the material on this EP is absolutely on par with the classics, and it sounds like it was composed over 20 years ago.
About the debut album
In the same vein, Haimad’s long overdue debut album finally arises like a beacon in the northern night, more than 30 years after the band’s founding, and continues the tradition of mid-90s style, melodic, symphonic Scandinavian black metal albums that saw a sort of renaissance in the recent past, most noteworthy with some bands from the Finnish scene. Haimad shows that Sweden, too, can still produce albums of the caliber of the 90s classics, and unleashes a majestic coalescence of classic symphony and black metal inferno steeped in Tolkien-lore.
Tracklist — When Night Rode Across the North:
1. When Night Rode Across the North
2. Nen Cenedril
3. Where Serpents Wait in Withering Ruins
4. Naur
5. Voice of the Dread Abomination
6. Of Smokeless Fire and Smouldering Ash
7. The Key to the First and Final Day
