Since forming in 2009, Der Weg Einer Freiheit have carved out a singular place in modern black metal. While rooted in the genre’s foundations, the German band are constantly evolving. On their upcoming sixth album, they look inward with devastating clarity. Having mined the liminal space between wakefulness and dreams on their last critically-acclaimed album, on Innern, Der Weg Einer Freiheir are tunneling even further inward, into collapse, silence and ultimately, transformation.
Innern comes out September 12 on Season of Mist.
“Since writing the very first song in 2007, Der Weg einer Freiheit has been a journey defined by passion, intensity, and a deep commitment to exploring the fragile thresholds of the human psyche through music,” says the band’s frontman and principal songwriter Nikita Kamprad.
“Over the past years, we’ve grown, evolved, and created something we’re incredibly proud of — and now, we’re excited to share the next step with you. Innern, the new album’s title, means ‘inward’ in German and perfectly captures the essence of this record: a meditation on suffering, transformation, and the intimate process of personal reckoning and renewal.”
Tethered by visceral aggression and atmospheric grandeur, Innern balances Der Weg Einer Freiheit’s post-metal restraint with the rawness of black metal’s core. The album was composed and produced by Kamprad, who captured the band’s blistering live show while maintaining their brooding weight. Pulled between Kamprad’s guitar interplay with Nicolas Rausch, Alan Noruspur’s grounding bass presence and Tobias Schuler’s precision drumming, it is as much about restraint as it is about release. Traversing isolation, memory, and the fragile thresholds between dissolution and renewal, Innern urges listeners to confront what lies beneath.
More praise for Der Weg Einer Freiheit
“Their sound is an excellent encapsulation of the dynamic nature of modern black metal, splicing post-black sensibilities with melodic bombastic and explosive drum performances” – Angry Metal Guy
“…takes the defining elements of Black Metal – strychnine tremolo melodies, rampaging blast-beats, haunting melancholy, and blinding, spiteful aggression – and burns away all the dross and excess, until only the true soul and spirit of the genre remains” – No Clean Singing
“Der Weg Einer Freiheit have shaken the foundations of the genre” – Echoes and Dust
“…a band that is doing things in black metal that few other bands are doing at this level of skill, vision and precision” – Heavy Blog Is Heavy “…Der Weg Einer Freiheit offers up a nice counterpoint to the notion that OG black metal is a dying fashion” – New Noise
Tracklist:
1. Marter (9:24)
2. Xibalba (10:07)
3. Eos (7:30)
4. Fragment (6:24)
5. Finisterre III (2:00)
6. Forlorn (7:44)
Full runtime: 43:12
In light of their introspective new journey, Der Weg Einer Freiheit are embarking on a headlining tour of Europe this fall in support of Innern. Next year, the band will finally make their long-awaited return to the U.S. with their first-ever performance at Maryland Deathfest.
DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT – INNERN FALL TOUR 2025:
September 18 – Dresden, DE @ Chemiefabrik
September 19 – Berlin, DE @ Heimathafen
September 20 – Prague, CZ @ Rock Café
September 21 – Munich, DE @ Backstage
September 22 – Leipzig, DE @ Werk 2
September 23 – Salzburg, AT @ Rockhouse
September 24 – Vienna, AT @ Szene
September 25 – Zurich, CH @ Dynamo
September 26 – Geneva, CH @ PTR/L’Usine
September 27 – Grenoble, FR @ Ampérage
September 28 – Paris, FR @ Le Petit Bain
September 29 – Ludwigsburg, DE @ Scala
September 30 – Wiesbaden, DE @ Schlachthof
October 1 – Hamburg, DE @ Knust
October 2 – Tilburg, NL @ 013
October 3 – Haarlem, NL @ Patronaat
October 4 – Bochum, DE @ Christuskirche
DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT @ Maryland Deathfest
May 21-24 – Baltimore, MD
Ticket are available at https://derwegeinerfreiheit.de/live/
With Innern, their sixth studio album, DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT return with their most introspective and compositionally expansive work to date. A meditation on suffering, transformation, and the fragile thresholds of the human psyche, Innern refines the band’s signature blend of black metal intensity and post-metal atmosphere. The title, German for “inward”, anchors the album’s conceptual weight: a turning away from the external, into a realm of personal reckoning,silence, and renewal. Across six meticulously crafted tracks, the band explores cycles of disintegration and emergence, inviting listeners to confront the deep and often contradictory nature of existence itself.
Der Weg Einer Freiheit formed in Würzburg, Germany in 2009, the brainchild of guitarist and composer Nikita Kamprad and original vocalist Tobias Jaschinsky. The band’s early beginnings were humble but explosive: their self-released debut quickly sold out, drawing attention across the underground metal scene. A reissue in 2010 with newly recorded drum parts by Christian Bass(Heaven Shall Burn, ex-Night in Gales) established the band’s first official lineup and led to extensive touring across Germany and Europe. From the outset, Der Weg Einer Freiheit were set apart not just by their technical prowess, but by a philosophical inclination that would become the band’s artistic hallmark.
Their 2012 sophomore album, Unstille, expanded on their debut’s melodic harshness, while introducing a deeper emotional weight. It also marked the first appearance of drummer Tobias Schuler, whose intricate and expressive playing would become central to the band’s identity. Though vocals on Unstille were still performed by Tobias Jaschinsky, he would leave the band shortly after its release. Kamprad took over vocal duties in the months that followed, stepping into the role of frontman in time for the writing and recording of their next album.
Stellar, released in 2015 via Season of Mist, solidified the band’s stature within the modern black metal landscape. Drawing from post-rock and progressive influences, the album embraced wider dynamics and cinematic structures,aligning them with the likes of Wolves in the Throne Room and Deafheaven, without sacrificing their own Germanic rigor and introspection.
In 2017, Finisterre signaled a conceptual leap forward. It confronted themes of isolation, personal dissolution, and spiritual finality across sprawling arrangements and stark tonal shifts. This period saw further lineup changes, with the departure of guitarist Sascha Rissling and bassist Giuliano Barbieri, and the arrival of Nicolas Rausch and Nicolas Ziska. Finisterre also marked their first chart placement in Germany and set the stage for increasingly ambitious live performances.
A live album, Live in Berlin (2019), captured the raw power and cathartic energy of the band’s concerts, affirming their reputation for immersive, emotionally charged performances. But it was Noktvrn, released in 2021, that truly redefined what Der Weg Einer Freiheit could become. Inspired by the ambiguous state between wakefulness and dreams, and drawing influence from classical composers such as Chopin and Arvo Pärt, the album saw Kamprad experiment with clean vocals and subdued textures. It was both a thematic and sonic breakthrough and was received by critics as their most refined and contemplative release to date.
Now, with Innern, Der Weg Einer Freiheit move even deeper into the abyss. Produced, mixed, and mastered by Kamprad in his own studio, the album is an intensely focused work.”Eos,” the album’s lead single, contrasts war and renewal, imagining a post-human earth fertilized by sacrifice and reclaimed by nature.”Marter” follows as a searing portrayal of inner torment and emotional release—suffering not only as a source of agony, but as a path toward transcendence. “Xibalba” then confronts the machinery of fear—media,propaganda, and spiritual fragmentation—urging a return to our collective essence through introspection and clarity. And with “Forlorn,” the band delivers their most vulnerable statement yet: a delicate plea for emotional refuge, sung in English to underscore its universality. The album also marks the studio debut of bassist Alan Noruspur, whose presence brings anew emotional and personal depth to the band’s sound.
Musically, Innern leans into contrast and contradiction. Kamprad and Rausch’s guitar interplay oscillates between searing aggression and elegiac restraint. Noruspur’s basslines pulse with warmth and gravity, while Schuler’s drumming remains as meticulous as ever-bridging technicality with emotional nuance. The album’s production captures a sense of immediacy and live energy, yet remains rich in detail and atmosphere. It is not merely a refinement of past styles, but are invention—one that places the listener in direct confrontation with the void.
Der Weg Einer Freiheit stand now at the peak of a fifteen-year evolution.Their music is as concerned with silence as it is with sound, as shaped by introspection as by fury. As they prepare to bring Innern to European stages in autumn 2025, they do so not as provocateurs of extremity, but as artists navigating the fragile space between collapse and clarity. In a genre often defined by spectacle, Der Weg Einer Freiheit remain committed to vulnerability, transformation, and truth.
Lineup:
Nikita Kamprad – Vocals, Guitars
Nicolas Rausch – Guitars
Alan Noruspur – Bass
Tobias Schuler – Drums
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