FUNERAL MIST, the notoriously reclusive Swedish black metal project led by Arioch (Daniel Rostén, also the live vocalist for MARDUK), have released their sixth full-length album "Hekatomb" digitally without any prior announcement via Norma Evangelium Diaboli, the elite French black metal label. The album, which runs 53 minutes across eight tracks, appeared on streaming platforms and Bandcamp simultaneously in the early morning hours of March 9 — in keeping with FUNERAL MIST's longstanding tradition of treating their music releases as ritual events rather than commercial exercises.
"Hekatomb" represents FUNERAL MIST's first new material since the EP "Apostata" in 2023, and builds significantly on the dense, oppressive sonic palette established across their catalog — including the acclaimed albums "Salvation" (2003), "Maranatha" (2009), and "Deiform" (2021). Initial listener reports describe the album as the band's most orchestral and structurally complex work to date, with extended passages of quasi-liturgical organ and chant interspersed among the expected walls of dissonant, violent black metal.
A physical release — on vinyl and CD through Norma Evangelium Diaboli — is expected in June 2026, with the tracklist, artwork, and full production credits to be revealed as the physical release date approaches. FUNERAL MIST operate entirely outside the mainstream metal press circuit, declining interviews and maintaining a deliberate mystique that has contributed to a cult status unusual even by extreme metal standards. "Hekatomb" is already generating substantial discussion in the underground black metal community, with early listeners calling it one of the most significant black metal releases of 2026.