The Wild Hunt

On The Wild Hunt, Watain took a decisive step outwards. Released in Europe on 19 August 2013 and in the United States the following day via Century Media, the album marked both the band’s first release on a major label and a clear moment of transformation. It debuted as their strongest commercial showing to date, topping sales in Sweden on release week and selling around 2,700 copies in the US in its first seven days. More importantly, it captured a band deliberately stretching the limits of its own identity.

Musically, The Wild Hunt expanded Watain’s black metal core with heavy metal weight, doom-laden pacing and progressive structures. The results were broader, slower-burning and more theatrical than anything in their catalogue so far. For the first time, Erik Danielsson introduced clean vocals, not as a concession but as another expressive weapon, allowing the album’s dramatic arcs to breathe. Critics noted how the band retained their extremity while opening the music up, pushing atmosphere and melody without abandoning menace. The record felt less claustrophobic than earlier releases, trading suffocation for scale.

Written across roughly three years and in fragments while touring Australia, Japan, the United States and Transylvania, the album carried a reflective undercurrent. Danielsson described The Wild Hunt as a retrospective work, shaped by struggle and endurance rather than autobiography. That sense of reckoning was baked into the recording process itself. Sessions began on 3 January 2013 and stretched across multiple studios, a physically and emotionally demanding approach that left its imprint on the final sound. The closing track, “Holocaust Dawn”, emerged last and acted as a summation, balancing sorrow with triumph and closing the record with a feeling of hard-won finality.

The album’s physical presentation mirrored its ambition. Artwork by Zbigniew M. Bielak, painted in oil and mixed materials, depicted a symbolic inner shrine, with each object tied conceptually to the music. Limited editions were lavish, including a collector’s version featuring an exclusive 7″ with “XI”, a song connected to the legacy of Dissection and approved by those safeguarding that history. For Watain, it was preservation as much as progression.

Reaction was largely positive, if divided. Some critics welcomed the widened palette and called it the band’s most important statement yet, while others bristled at moments where accessibility surfaced. Still, many agreed that The Wild Hunt represented a pivotal release. It was Watain confronting their past and future at once, dragging black metal’s darkness into a broader, harsher light without fully taming it.