EXTOL RETURN AFTER THIRTEEN YEARS WITH NEW ALBUM AURA OF DECAY

Norwegian extreme metal pioneers EXTOL are back. Thirteen years after their self titled album Extol from 2013, they will release their sixth studio record, Aura of Decay. The new album will arrive on November 6, 2026 via Solid State Records and will also mark the return of the classic lineup, with guitarist Christer Espevoll rejoining the band.

EXTOL formed in Norway in 1993 and have built an exceptionally distinctive sound throughout their career. Their music has never remained confined to a single genre. Technical death metal has long intersected with progressive metal, black metal, thrash and more avant garde approaches. This ability to combine extreme heaviness with complex arrangements and melody has become one of the band's defining characteristics.

Aura of Decay was created during an extended period of writing and recording. The material was tracked at several locations, specifically Hawk Studios, Little Cave Studio and Hrada Creative. The final mixing and mastering were handled by Jens Bogren at Fascination Street Studios in Örebro, Sweden. Available credits do not identify one individual as the sole producer of the entire album, so it is more accurate to remain with the confirmed studio credits.

The first taste of the album came with The One and the Many. The track immediately showed that EXTOL are not returning from their long studio absence with safe or simplified music. Restless structures, abrupt changes, technical guitars and a combination of aggressive and cleaner vocal passages recall why the band developed such a distinctive position within progressive extreme metal.

Lyrically, The One and the Many explores modern tribalism, the relativization of truth and the conflict between individuality and collective thinking. The musical chaos is not there simply for its own sake. The constant changes and unstable structure of the song reinforce the sense of social and psychological fragmentation addressed by the lyrics.

Another track introducing the new chapter of EXTOL is Disintegrate. Although the band have evolved considerably throughout their history, the new material also recalls their earlier roots. Aura of Decay is expected to include rawer, black metal tinged atmospheres that refer back to the band's early period and their debut album Burial.

The current lineup consists of Peter Espevoll on vocals, Christer Espevoll on guitars, Ole Børud on guitars, bass and vocals, and David Husvik on drums and vocals. Christer Espevoll's return therefore gives the new record another dimension, as Aura of Decay once again brings together musicians who played a fundamental role in shaping the band's character.

The album contains eleven tracks with a total running time of just under forty five minutes. Alongside the already introduced The One and the Many and Disintegrate, it also features Sanctum, Merciless Hunger, Vile Path, Phantom Dismay, Shield and Alibi, Wrecked Within Walls, Dimness of Lingering Gloom, Beneath the Dirt and the closing End of Times.

The visual side of the album was entrusted to Hugh Syme. His name complements the record's strong studio background, led above all by the final work of Jens Bogren. After a thirteen year gap between full length records, EXTOL are therefore not returning merely for nostalgia, but with an album intended to connect their past with the band's present form.

Aura of Decay will be released on November 6, 2026 via Solid State Records. For EXTOL, it will be their first full length album since 2013 and a return that preserves their characteristic combination of technical complexity, extreme metal, progressive thinking and a willingness to venture into places where genre boundaries begin to dissolve.