SLAGMAUR unveil video single ‘Huldergeist‘
& details of new album “Hulders Ritual“

SLAGMAUR reveal the stunning video single ‘Huldergeist‘ featuring guest-vocals by Hoest (TAAKE), D.G. (MISÞYRMING), and Maria Charlotte Lund in collaboration with the dedicated channel Black Metal Promotion. The track is taken from the forthcoming new album “Hulders Ritual“, which is chalked up for release on February 27, 2026.

SLAGMAUR comment ‘Huldergeist’: “‘The first single from our new album ‘Hulders Ritual’ is based on a historic event at Fosen, when someone went ‘bergtatt’, which means a person that was taken by the hidden folk and has vanished without a trace”, mastermind General Gribbsphiiser explains. “The event is well attested in local village chronicles. Dark rituals, paranormal phenomena, and deep-rooted folklore do not just build the core of this track but also form the concept behind ‘Hulders Ritual’. On this track, I am joined on vocals by D.G. from Misþyrming and the climatic finale is perfectly delivered by Taake’s Hoest. The song closes with the Hulder’s answer, which is beautifully performed by the vocalist Maria Charlotte Lund. The music video was filmed by Håkon Settemsdal, who is one of the world’s leading drone pilots and a two-time award winner with the drone manufacturer DJI.”

Credits
Filmed by Håkon Settemsdal
Drone piloting by Håkon Settemsdal

For every genre, there comes a time when all seems said and done. Black metal has long reached this destination all too often resulting in decline, repetition, and nostalgia. Yet occasionally, along comes a band that rewrites the rules. On their fourth studio album “Hulders Ritual” (‘Ritual of the Fay’), SLAGMAUR achieve this extremely difficult feat.

Not just via the additional production by the ‘inventor’ of the ‘Norwegian black metal sound’: THORNS mastermind Snorre W. Ruch, SLAGMAUR are solidly building on the foundation of harsh Norwegian black metal with all the respect due the scene that they are a part of. Then again, mastermind General Gribbsphiiser does not stop there. Unafraid and with reckless abandon, he mutates and warps the traditional formula with a host of subtle innovations and tweaks of the classic sound.

Every aspect of SLAGMAUR reflects the larger than life and unapologetic approach to the art of black metal of the band – live on stage, in the interaction with their die-hard followers and now fully unleashed also on “Hulders Ritual”. Although the album continues, refines, and widens the daring stylistic balance of SLAGMAUR’s previous works, it adds an extra dimension of sardonic mania to its collection of sharp and vicious sonic instruments. Choice guest-contributions that include TAAKE vocalist Hoest, DIMMU BORGIR guitarist Silenoz, and MISÞYRMING frontman D.G., who cover three decades of Nordic black metal make a case in point.

In everything that Gribbsphiiser is creating and releasing there is an aspect of total art that permeates the band and “Hulders Ritual”. The album’s name refers to a female spirit or fay being that is common in Nordic folklore. Mostly associated with the forest the relationship of these seductive creatures with humans differs in local tradition and ranges from beneficial to outright evil: abducting and murdering men or replacing human children with their own misshapen get.

“Hulders Ritual” reflects these themes. When Gribbsphiiser and Snorre Ruch staged their much debated disappearance prior to the announcement of the album, this action was far from a simple media stunt but directly tied to the stories of abduction and disappearance caused by supernatural beings on “Hulders Ritual”. It also served as a reminder that the mechanics by which the orally transmitted folk tales, children’s rhymes, and local stories of old that inspire SLAGMAUR still work in the digital age – with the marked difference that the circulation happens radically faster and globally.

SLAGMAUR have never intended their lyrics as a simple retelling of old stuff, but rather as a defiant challenge of conventions or as unsettling and confrontational provocation. Gribbsphiiser occasionally assumes the role of a black jester, who dares to hold up a mirror to society and does not care, if generating a story that goes viral despite a plethora of deliberately planted clues and full of holes causes opposition.

SLAGMAUR hail from Brekstad on the Fosen peninsula in the Trøndelag region and are a part of the Trondheim-based ‘Nidrosian black metal movement’. Founder, composer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist General Gribbsphiiser even participated formally in a bloody baptismal ceremony shared with scene-defining musicians.

Although Gribbsphiiser started the band as a solo project, he already recruited fellow musicians during the recording of his first demo, “Svin” (2006). SLAGMAUR’s black avant-garde debut album, “Skrekk Lich Kunstler” (2007), marked the premier instalment in the still-unfolding series, “The Art of Olderman”. The following studio albums “Von Rov Shelter” (2009) and “Thill Smitts Terror” (2017) continued this story arc.

“Hulders Ritual” is for those who are seeking musical darkness, magic, and the relentless breaking of limitations from black metal. SLAGMAUR push forward among the select few that are leading the way to the future of the genre.

Band: Slagmaur
Album title: Hulders Ritual
Style: Norwegian Black Metal
Release date: February 27, 2026
Label: Prophecy Productions
Review impact date: January 26, 2026

Line-up
General Gribbsphiiser – guitars
Dr. Von Hellreich – vocals
Mr. Unt Zilla – bass
Red Max – drums

Guest musicians
D.G. (MISÞYRMING) – vocals on ‘Huldergeist’ & ‘Rathkings’
Hoest (TAAKE) – vocals on ‘Huldergeist’
Maria Charlotte Lund – vocals on ‘Huldergeist’
Silenoz (DIMMU BORGIR) – vocals on ‘Rathkings’
Snorre W. Ruch (THORNS) – additional producer

Recording by Rune Krieghr Røstad at Nekk Brekk Studio, Fosen (NO)
Mix by Rune Krieghr Røstad at Nekk Brekk Studio, Fosen (NO)
Mastering by Stein Bratland at Skansen Lydstudio, Trondheim (NO)

Artwork by Rune Krieghr Røstad (Storeulv Foto)
Layout by Łukasz Jaszak

Links
www.facebook.com/slagmaurofficial
www.instagram.com/slagmaur_official

Shoplink
https://spkr.store/collections/slagmaur

Available formats
“Hulders Ritual” is available as Digipak CD, ltd. Gatefold splatter black & bloodred vinyl LP (400 copies), Gatefold black vinyl LP.